Electronic voting method for optically scanned ballot

ABSTRACT

A method for reading ballots comprises reading/imaging each ballot transported on a transport path including reading/imaging orientation indicia and a jurisdiction identifier thereof and voting selections marked thereon; determining from the orientation indicia the orientation of each ballot; processing the jurisdiction identifier for each ballot for selecting a template; and recording the voting selections marked on each ballot in accordance with the selected template and the determined orientation of the ballot.

[0001] This Application is a continuation-in-part of U.S. patentapplication Ser. No. 10/260,167 filed Sep. 30, 2002 which claims thebenefit of:

[0002] U.S. Provisional Application Serial No. 60/326,265 filed Oct. 1,2001, of

[0003] U.S. Provisional Application Serial No. 60/341,633 filed Dec. 18,2001,

[0004] U.S. Provisional Application Serial No. 60/377,824 filed May 3,2002,

[0005] U.S. Provisional Application Serial No. 60/382,033 filed May 20,2002,

[0006] U.S. Provisional Application Serial No. 60/385,118 filed May 30,2002,

[0007] U.S. Provisional Application Serial No. 60/389,635 filed Jun. 17,2002, and

[0008] U.S. Provisional Application Serial No. 60/403,151 filed Aug. 12,2002.

[0009] The present invention relates to a voting method and, inparticular, to a voting method employing an optically read ballot.

[0010] Under current election law and regulations in certainjurisdictions, a paper record of certain voter's voting selections madeon a paper ballot, e.g., a conventional “mark-sense” ballot, must bemade and preserved. Most commonly, a paper voting record or ballot mustbe utilized for absentee voting and/or for provisional voting. Absenteevoting is where a voter who will be absent from the jurisdiction orotherwise unable to be present at a designated polling location duringthe time for voting is issued a paper ballot in advance of the electionand votes by completing and submitting the paper absentee ballot byhand, mail, messenger, or other permitted means. Provisional voting iswhere a voter who is unable to establish his eligibility to vote at apolling place during an election is issued a paper ballot and ispermitted to vote thereby “provisionally,” i.e. by sealed paperprovisional ballot that is only opened and counted if the eligibility ofthe provisional voter to vote is established by election officials afterthe time for voting ends.

[0011] Irrespective of whether a jurisdiction utilizes paper ballots ormore modern electronic voting machines, absentee and provisional ballotsmust be handled separately and counted manually by election officials,i.e. apart from the votes recorded by voters voting normally (e.g., byvoting machine) in the election, and may delay the completion oftabulating the voting results and/or the certification thereof Certainjurisdictions even require a paper absentee and/or provisional balloteven where the absentee and/or provisional voting is done on anelectronic (DRE) voting machine. In addition, because the paper ballotsapproved for being counted are placed into groups so that they areanonymous for counting, there is no way for a voter to know whether hisvote was counted and/or was counted correctly.

[0012] The prevalent paper ballot is an optically read or opticallyscanned paper ballot on which a voter marks his voting selections bydarkening or otherwise marking one or more regions typically indicatedby an outline in the shape of a circle, oval, rectangle, square or otherdesired closed shape. The marking areas of such conventional“mark-sense” ballots are typically arranged in discrete columns thatcorrespond to the positions of the sensors in a conventional ballotreading machine. A different paper ballot, i.e. a customized ballot, istypically required to be prepared for each election and jurisdiction,e.g., voting district or precinct. In addition, a correspondingcustomized template must be provided for each different paper ballot,thereby necessitating the manual sorting of the paper ballots by votingdistrict or precinct and the separate reading/scanning thereof for eachvoting district or precinct.

[0013] Accordingly, it would be desirable to have a method forprocessing paper ballots, such as optically scanned or optically readballots, in a more versatile and/or efficient manner and preferably onesuitable for use with a modern electronic (e.g., DRE) voting machine

[0014] To this end, a method for reading a ballot comprising:

[0015] reading each ballot transported on a transport path includingreading fiducial marks and a jurisdiction identifier thereof and votingselections marked thereon;

[0016] determining from the fiducial marks the orientation of eachballot;

[0017] processing the jurisdiction identifier for each ballot forselecting a template; and

[0018] recording the voting selections marked on each ballot inaccordance with the selected template and the determined orientation ofthe ballot.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWING

[0019] The detailed description of the preferred embodiments of thepresent invention will be more easily and better understood when read inconjunction with the FIGURES of the Drawing which include:

[0020]FIG. 1 is a schematic diagram illustrating an example ballotintended to be read by an optical reader;

[0021]FIG. 2 is a schematic diagram illustrating an example format for avoter identifier (VID);

[0022]FIGS. 3A, 3B, 3C and 3D are schematic diagrams illustrating ageneralized example ballot intended to be read by an optical reader;

[0023]FIG. 4 is a schematic diagram illustrating an example ballotincluding ranked and/or cumulative voting that is intended to be read byan optical reader;

[0024]FIG. 5 is a schematic block diagram of an example ballotgenerating apparatus;

[0025]FIG. 6 is a schematic block diagram of an example votingapparatus;

[0026]FIG. 7 is a schematic diagram illustrating an example ballotreader for reading optically read ballots of the sorts illustrated inFIGS. 1, 3A-3D and 4;

[0027]FIG. 8 is a schematic flow diagram of an example ballot readingprocess compatible with the apparatus of FIG. 7;

[0028]FIG. 9 is a schematic flow diagram illustrating details of aportion of the ballot reading process of FIG. 8;

[0029]FIGS. 10A, 10B, and 10C are schematic diagrams of mark spaces of aballot marked in a variety of ways and of details thereof;

[0030]FIG. 11 is a schematic flow diagram of an example process forgenerating the ballots of FIGS. 1, 3A-3D and 4; and

[0031]FIG. 12 is a schematic flow diagram of an example voting processutilizing the ballot of FIGS. 1, 3A-3D and 4.

[0032] In the Drawing, where an element or feature is shown in more thanone drawing figure, the same alphanumeric designation may be used todesignate such element or feature in each figure, and where a closelyrelated or modified element is shown in a figure, the samealphanumerical designation primed may be used to designate the modifiedelement or feature. Similarly, similar elements or features may bedesignated by like alphanumeric designations in different figures of theDrawing and with similar nomenclature in the specification, but in theDrawing are followed by a character unique to the embodiment described.It is noted that, according to common practice, the various features ofthe drawing are not to scale, and the dimensions of the various featuresare arbitrarily expanded or reduced for clarity.

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENT(S)

[0033] The arrangement of the present application operates inconjunction with an electronic voting machine, also referred to aselectronic voting apparatus and/or as a direct recording electronic(DRE) voting apparatus. Suitable voting apparatus, and methods employedtherewith, are described in U.S. patent application Ser. No. 09/737,306entitled “Electronic Voting Apparatus, System and Method” filed Dec. 15,2000 and in U.S. patent application Ser. No. 10/255,348 entitled“Electronic Voting Apparatus, System and Method” filed Sep. 26, 2002,which applications are hereby incorporated herein by reference in theirentireties.

[0034]FIG. 1 is a diagram illustrating an example ballot 100 intended tobe read by an optical reader. Ballot 100 includes four regions 110 eachcontaining information pertaining to a particular election contest orquestion and a number of marking regions or mark spaces 112 therein inwhich a voter makes a mark to select one or more voting selections forthe particular election contest or question. Mark spaces 112 may be anyconvenient closed shape and provide a defined area in a defined locationin which a voter marks his voting selections by darkening or otherwisemarking therein. Mark spaces 112 are typically indicated by an outlinein the shape of a circle, oval, rectangle, square or other desiredclosed shape. After the ballot 100 is marked by the voter, it is voted(e.g., deposited in a ballot box or otherwise submitted) and is read andtabulated, typically by a reading machine or reader that optically readsor senses the defined mark spaces to determine whether each mark space112 is marked or unmarked, thereby indicating a voting selection. Thereading machine is programed to define a “template” corresponding to thelocations on the ballot where each of the contests/questions 110 and therespective mark spaces 112 therefor are located.

[0035] In the example illustrated, a first region 110 designated“General Election (1/4)” contains the names and party affiliations ofcandidates for “President and Vice President” and a mark space 112 foreach set of candidates, as well as mark spaces 112 for a “Skip Contest”or “No Vote” (abstain) selection 114 and for a write-in candidateselection 116. A second region 110 designated “General Election (2/4)”contains the names and party affiliations of candidates for “UnitedStates Representative (District 16)” and a mark space 112 for eachcandidate, as well as mark spaces 112 for a “Skip Contest” or “No Vote”(abstain) selection 114 and for a write-in candidate selection 116. Athird region 110 designated “General Election (3/4)” contains the namesand party affiliations of candidates for “State Senator” and a markspace 112 for each candidate, as well as mark spaces 112 for a “SkipContest” or “No Vote” (abstain) selection 114 and for a write-incandidate selection 116. A fourth region 110 designated “GeneralElection (4/4)” contains a question put before the voters designated as“State Question 214” and a mark space 112 for a “Yes” or “No” selection,as well as a mark space for a “Skip Contest” or “No Vote” (abstain)selection 114.

[0036] In addition, each ballot includes a voter registration number120, also known as a voter identifier number or voter identificationnumber, commonly abbreviated as “VID.” Identifier or VID 120 ispreferably located at a predefined location on ballot 100, e.g., nearthe upper right hand corner as illustrated. VID 120 may be provided inany convenient machine readable format, including but not limited to abar code, two-dimensional bar code, a prescribed font, optical characterrecognition (OCR) characters, alphanumeric characters, non-alphanumericcharacters, symbols, and the like. Typically, however, a human-readablenumber 120N and an equivalent simple machine-readable bar code 120C aresatisfactory.

[0037]FIG. 2 is a schematic diagram illustrating an example format 380for a voter identifier (VID) 120. VID 120 is a sequence of numbers orother alphanumeric characters or symbols that uniquely identify a voterand provide voting information relating to the voter that may beutilized by a voting machine or by a ballot reading machine or byelection officials. VID format 380 includes, for example, six differentinformational fields 381-386. Field 381 includes a number of characters,typically 3, that uniquely identify the voter's state of residence andfield 382 includes a number of characters, typically 3, that uniquelyidentify the voter's county of residence. Fields 381-386 may be used forautomatic reading and tabulation of different ballots without manual orother sorting prior to their being read and tabulated, as well as forabsentee and provisional voting. While a three-digit numerical field istypical, providing up to 999 different entries, two-digit fields may beutilized where a lesser number (i.e. 99 or less) of possible entries areneeded, as in the United States where there are only 50 states. Anyfield may be of greater or lesser number of characters as is convenient.

[0038] Field 383 includes a number of characters, typically 4, thatuniquely identify the voter's municipality of residence. Field 384includes a number of characters, typically 2, that uniquely identify thevoter's voting precinct or district within the county or municipality,and field 385 includes a number of characters, typically 2, thatuniquely identify the voter's voting ward, if any, within the votingprecinct or district. Field 386 includes a number of characters,typically 2, that uniquely identify the voter's political partyaffiliation if any has been declared and may be utilized for presentingthe ballot of the declared political party for voting in a party primaryelection or for straight party voting, where permitted.

[0039] Field 387 includes a number of characters, typically 4-10, thatuniquely identifies the particular ballot in the applicable county,voting precinct, district and/or ward, as the case may be. The randomgenerated number, field 387, is a randomly-generated unique identifierthat is printed on a ballot prior to the election, and may or may not betraceable to the identity of a particular voter, as desired for securityand privacy. The same unique identifiers as are printed on paperballots, e.g., for absentee and/or provisional voting, may be stored ina voting machine or in a vote tabulating machine for verifying theauthenticity and uniqueness of ballot when it is tabulated.

[0040] In the United States, voting is typically conducted on a state bystate basis, and most states delegate to its counties the conduct ofelections. In local voting, i.e. voting wherein a particular votingmachine is dedicated for voting by voters of a particular county,municipality, precinct, district or ward, fields 382-385 may be utilizedby the voting machine or vote tabulating machine to verify that thevoter is using the proper ballot form before the voting session isinitiated and/or before the voting selections marked on the ballot aretabulated, e.g., in provisional voting. Typically in local voting, thevoting machine is situated in a location in a particular precinct,district or ward and voters from that particular voting precinct,district or ward come to that location to vote, and provisional and/orabsentee voters may vote using such voting machines even though theirvoting selections are then reproduced on a printed ballot, e.g., asprinted by a printer associated with the voting machine.

[0041] Data from fields 381-386 is utilized to select the voting screensand/or voting contests to be presented on a voting machine and/or on oneor more printed ballot sheets that together comprise a proper completeelection ballot for that voter in a given election. Each voting machinemay generate on a voter-by-voter basis a complete election ballot byselectively combining, for example, a “general ballot” including one ormore voting contests 110 that are to be presented to all voters, a“residence-specific ballot” including one or more voting contests 110 tobe presented to voters according to their residence, and/or a“party-specific ballot” including one or more voting contests 110 to bepresented to voters in a party primary election according to their partyaffiliation. Thus, a voting machine and/or ballot printer is notconstrained or limited to local voting, but may be utilized forcounty-wide or state-wide or nation-wide voting, for regional voting,and/or for remote voting.

[0042] Where voters are issued a chip card or smart card containing hisVID number 120 and an electronic voting machine is utilized for printingpaper ballots, the voting machine is responsive to voting jurisdictioninformation 381-386 read from each voter's chip card for providing aballot to the voter and may retain the chip card for the writing of thevoter's voting selections therein and then collects the chip card in acollection container or may allow an election official to have the chipcard. Optionally, the voting machine and/or vote tabulating machine mayreject the chip card and/or the paper ballot 100 if the voterregistration information 381-386 and/or the unique identifier 387 readtherefrom do not match corresponding information stored in the votingmachine and/or vote tabulating machine, and may return or collect thechip card. In either case, the chip card once inserted into the votingmachine may be retained in a way that the voter may not retrieve thechip card, e.g., for securing the card against use to vote more thanonce. For provisional voting, the chip card may be likewise retaineduntil the voting selections of a provisional voter are stored therein,and then may be returned to the provisional voter and/or a votingofficial, e.g., with a proper authorization. Unique identifiers 387 onceused for an election may be “retired” and not used in one or moresubsequent elections as a means to reduce the likelihood of fraudulentin a future election, e.g., either as a VID number 120 and/or by acounterfeit smart card.

[0043]FIGS. 3A, 3B, 3C and 3D are schematic diagrams illustrating ageneralized example ballot 100 intended to be read by an optical reader.Generalized ballot format 100 a of FIG. 3A has a plurality of locations112′ at which mark spaces 112 may be provided and has a region 120′ inwhich a VID number 120 may be represented. Ballot format 100 a isgeneralized in that it illustrates all possible mark space locations112′ and a relatively large region in which a VID number 120representation may be provided. An actual ballot format will typicallybe on a standardized paper, such as an 80-column machine readable cardor an 8½×11 inch or an A4 size paper, and have many more possible markspace locations 112′.

[0044] In any particular ballot 100, less than all of possible markspace locations 112′ will be utilized as mark spaces 112 and less thanthe entire region 120′ will typically be utilized for providing the VIDnumber 120 representation. Generalized ballot format 100 a represents aballot pattern from which particular ballots 100 and areas forparticular contests 110, each utilizing specific selected ones of markspace locations 112′, according to a template, may be provided.

[0045]FIG. 3B illustrates an example ballot 100 b which is provided froma ballot format 100 a on which contest regions 110 are defined by dashedlines 118 in the region having the possible mark spaces 112′ and inwhich ones of possible mark spaces 112′ to be utilized for markingvoting selections are mark spaces 112 defined by solid line circles. Thedashed lines 118 defining contest regions 110 and the mark spaces 112that may be selected together define a template for ballot 100 b, i.e.define the pattern by which voting selections will be marked for each ofplural voting contests as well as the pattern by which voting selectionswill be read by a vote tabulating machine or reader for each of thevoting contests in tabulating the vote. The template of ballot 100 bdefines four contest areas 110 of the same size, with each having threeactive mark spaces 112. Each three mark space contest 110-3 might beutilized, e.g., for a contest among three candidates, or for a contestamong three candidates where mark spaces are provided for a “No Vote”selection and a write-in selection, or for a public question or other“Yes-No” response matter where a mark space is provided for a “No Vote”or “Abstain” selection.

[0046]FIG. 3C illustrates an example ballot 100A which is provided froma ballot format 100A on which contest regions 110 are defined by dashedlines 118 in the region having the possible mark spaces 112′ and inwhich ones of possible mark spaces 112′ to be utilized for markingvoting selections are mark spaces 112 defined by solid line circles. Thedashed lines 118 defining contest regions 110 and the mark spaces 112that may be selected together define a template for ballot 100A, i.e.define the pattern by which voting selections will be marked andtabulated. The template of ballot 100A defines four contest areas 110 oftwo different sizes, one having five active mark spaces 112, and threehaving two mark spaces 112. The five mark space contest 110-5 might beutilized, e.g., for a contest among five candidates or for a contestamong three candidates where mark spaces are provided for a “No Vote” or“Abstain” selection and for a write-in selection. Each two-mark spacecontest 110-2 may be utilized, e.g., for a public question or other“Yes-No” response matter.

[0047]FIG. 3D illustrates a generalized example ballot 100 intended tobe read by an optical reader, wherein ballot 100 includes a number oforientation indicia or fiducial marks 122 that are located inpredetermined asymmetric positions that when read by a ballot reader maybe utilized to define the orientation of ballot 100. Although only oneindicia or fiducial mark 122 is necessary to define ballot orientation,and will satisfactorily define the orientation of ballot 100 for readingby an automatic ballot reader, plural (at least two or more) indicia orfiducial marks 122 are preferred so that the orientation of ballot 100may be determined even when ballot 100 is not properly and preciselyaligned for reading by a ballot reader and so that the scale of theballot may be determined.

[0048] In particular, orientation indicia or fiducial mark 122 a nearthe upper corner of ballot 100 and orientation indicia or fiducial marks122 b and 122 c near the lower edge, e.g., near the right-hand andleft-hand corners of ballot 100 define the orientation of ballot 100and, because the predetermined positional locations of indicia orfiducial marks 122 a, 122 b and 122 c are precisely known, i.e. they arespaced apart a predetermined distance, orientation indicia or fiducialmarks 122 also define the scale and/or size of ballot 100. Further, eachmark space 112 is in a predetermined position relative to indicia orfiducial marks 122, and so the relative locations of all mark spaces112, as well as any other location on ballot 100, can be determined fromfiducial marks 122, whether or not a mark space 112 has been marked.Where ballots are imaged, the positions of each indicia or fiducial mark122 and of each mark space 112 is defined in the same coordinate systemas are the pixels of the ballot image, e.g., in X-Y coordinates, therebyto facilitate the “reading” of the ballot via its ballot image, e.g. todetermine which mark spaces 112 are marked to indicate a votingselection.

[0049] Comparing the predetermined relative positions and/or spacings ofindicia or fiducial marks 122 with the imaged positions thereof permitsthe scale/size of the ballot image and the position of each mark space112 to be determined. This is helpful for normalizing the ballot imageprovided by the ballot reader as well as for locating the properpositions of ballot identifier 120 and of marking areas 112 as definedby the appropriate ballot template. Scaling and/or normalizing the sizeof the ballot image can be utilized to compensate for small changes inthe size of ballots, e.g., due to stress, moisture content and the like,thereby to avoid any inaccuracy that might otherwise result therefrom.

[0050] Suitable indicia or fiducial marks include, for example,cross-hair lines, cross-hair lines in a circle, targets, bulls-eyeshapes, bullets, “+” marks, “X” marks, boxes, any of the foregoing withone or more black, darkened or contrasting adjacent sections, and/or anycombination thereof. Symmetrical indicia or fiducial marks that uniquelydefine their own center are preferred. Indicia or fiducial marks 122and/or the pattern thereof may be standardized for all ballots and/ormay be different for different ballots and defined by the ballottemplate therefor. Indicia or fiducial marks 122 may located be anylocation(s) suitable for defining the orientation, and preferably alsodefining the scale/size, of ballot 100. To this end, an odd-number ofindicia or fiducial marks 122 disposed in an asymmetric pattern arepreferred. Where a two-sided or plural sheet ballot is utilized, eachsheet and/or side includes marking indicia or fiducial marks 122.

[0051] In addition, where a ballot is too long to be provided on oneballot sheet, plural sheets may be provided with a page numberidentifier on each sheet that is read and utilized to select the properballot sheet template or to determine the portion of a selected ballottemplate applicable to each ballot sheet. Preferably, page numberidentifiers are human-readable and machine-readable, such as a numeralin a font easily read by a computer reader. Further, so-called “summary”ballots may be utilized wherein the candidates and questions areprovided in a booklet, and each candidate and/or response is identifiedin the booklet by a number; in this case, the mark spaces 112 of thesummary ballot are each associated with one of the numbers set forth inthe booklet. In addition, a candidate name and/or response selection(e.g., a “yes” or “no” ) may be printed on the summary ballot with thenumber.

[0052]FIG. 4 is a schematic diagram illustrating an example ballot 100including ranked and/or cumulative voting that is intended to be read byan optical reader. Ballot 100 includes a plurality of contest areas 110(each having a region wherein “NAME and other features of the contest”information identifying the particular contest is placed and whereinmark spaces for selecting a candidate are placed) and also includes aVID area 120, as described above. Any one or more contest areas 110 maybe utilized for straight voting, for ranked voting and/or for cumulativevoting, as may be the case for a particular election and/or contest.

[0053] A first contest area 110-R is arranged for conducting rankedvoting wherein the voter may rank the candidates in his order ofpreference. In this example, five candidates may be ranked. Filling onemark space 112 indicates first choice ranking, filling two mark spaces112 indicates second choice ranking, and so forth. The opposite sense,where marking a greater number of mark spaces for a candidate indicatesa greater preference, could also be utilized. Thus, five mark spaces 112are associated with each candidate's name and with each write-incandidate position 116. Optionally and/or alternatively, plural markspaces may be associated with rank numbers (e.g., a “1” mark space forfirst choice, a “2” mark space for second choice, a “3” mark space forthird choice, and so forth) for each candidate in a contest.

[0054] Ranked voting may be utilized for conducting an “instant run-off”where no candidate or an insufficient number of candidates receivessufficient first-choice votes to be elected (e.g., fails to receive amajority of the votes cast) under the election rules in effect. If nocandidates win or fewer than the required number win, a run-off electionis required. Conventionally the run-off election occurs later in timeand incurs the expense of conducting a second election. In an instantrun off, so called because the voting needed for the run off are cast inthe initial election and so are immediately (“instantly” ) available. Inan instant run-off election, candidate(s) receiving the least firstchoice votes are eliminated and the voters' second choice rankings ofcandidates other than those eliminated are then counted to determine thewinner(s). One mark space 112 is provided to skip the entire contestand/or to abstain 114 for the balance of that contest, i.e. tointentionally under vote. The voting apparatus and ballots describedherein permit an instant run-off election to be conducted automaticallyand electronically if no winner emerges from the initial voting.

[0055] A second contest area 110-C of ballot 100 is arranged forconducting cumulative voting wherein the voter may distribute a givennumber of votes among the candidates in his order of preference,typically where more than one candidate is to be elected in a givencontest. Cumulative voting allows the voter to distribute his vote amongany one or more of the candidates rather than being limited to votingfor or not voting for each candidate equally, as in straight voting. Inthis example, five votes may be cast (five mark spaces 112 may bemarked) in the contest and the five votes may be cast for any one ormore candidates. Filling more mark spaces 112 for a candidate indicatesa greater number of votes, and thus a greater preference, for thatcandidate. Thus, five mark spaces 112 are associated with eachcandidate's name and with each write-in candidate 116. One mark space112 is provided to skip the entire contest and/or to abstain 114 for thebalance of that contest, i.e. to intentionally under vote.

[0056] Alternatively to providing plural mark spaces 112 for eachcandidate for conducting ranked and/or cumulative voting, mark space 112may be arranged as a seven-segment mark space 112′ wherein selected onesof the seven segment spaces thereof may be marked to define a numeral.For example, marking the two vertical segments at the left or at theright indicates the number “1” , marking the top, middle and bottomhorizontal segments and the upper right and lower left vertical segmentsindicates the number “2” , marking all seven segments indicated thenumber “8” , and so forth, in like manner to illuminating selectedsegments of a seven-segment display to display numbers.

[0057] The two remaining contest areas 110 of ballot 100 are examples ofstraight voting for two different example contests, one in which twocandidates of eleven are to be elected and the other in which onecandidate is to be elected. Ballot 100 may include, and preferably doesinclude plural positional indicia 122 as described above in relation toFIG. 3D.

[0058]FIG. 5 is a schematic block diagram of an example ballotgenerating apparatus 200. Apparatus 200 includes a processor forgenerating ballots 100 from information provided thereto either byelection officials entering contest information, candidate informationand the like, i.e. for generating ballot form and/or formats forparticular jurisdictions and/or sub-divisions thereof The processor maybe the processor included in an electronic voting machine that includesballot generating capability, such as the VOTE-TRAKKER™ direct recordingelectronic voting machine available from Avante InternationalTechnology, Inc. located in Princeton Junction, N.J. described in patentapplications Ser. Nos. 09/737,306 and 10/255,348, or may be a computerrunning suitable ballot generating software.

[0059] Ballot printer BP may be a conventional ballot printer thatprints ballots provided it is capable of printing the VID number 120 inmachine-and/or human readable form and of printing the unique randomportion of the VID 120, or may be a printer associated with votingmachine 2M. The actual format of ballots 100 will be in conformance tothe applicable federal, state, county, and/or local legal requirementsfor election ballots, as is the case for conventional optically-scannedballots. Thus, standardized paper sizes, e.g., 8½×11 inches or 8½×14inches or A metric paper, may be utilized, and single-page ballotrequirements, minimum font size standards, candidate ballot spacestandards, and the like, will be met, in a customized and/orconventional ballot format. For example, ballots 100 may be conventionalballots such as a Scantron ballot, which has an array of 48×80elliptical mark spaces on fixed grid pattern on an 8½×11 inch paperballot, onto which is added VID number 120 in machine- and/orhuman-readable form as described herein.

[0060]FIG. 6 is a schematic block diagram of an example voting apparatusV.C. as shown and described in patent applications Ser. Nos. 09/737,306and 10/255,348 incorporated herein. Voting machine 2M includes aprocessor P for processing information relative to a voter and/or votingand for providing a voting session identifier, a non-volatile memory Mfor storing and providing such information, a display unit DU fordisplaying information to the voter, and a voter interface VI wherebythe voter can enter information into voting machine 2M for processor Pand/or memory M. It is noted that the components of voting machine 2Mare similar to the components of a personal computer and so aconventional personal computer, with or without modification, may beutilized in voting machine 2M, although it is likely that conventionalcomputer components, particularly processor P and memory M, may beutilized in conjunction with displays DU and input devices VI adapted toor customized for the voting machine application, for example, forruggedness, resistance to tampering and/or abuse. In addition, processorP includes a function for providing unique voting session identifiersfor each voting session, for example, a random-number orrandom-character generator RAG or a look-up table or other suitablegenerator. Voter interface VI may be a touch screen and so would providedisplay DU and a keyboard.

[0061] Memory M may also be of any suitable non-volatile memory type.Suitable memory devices include floppy disks, computer hard disk drives,writeable optical disks, memory cards, memory modules and flash memorymodules (such as those utilized in electronic cameras), magnetic andoptical tapes and disks, as well as semiconductor memories such asnon-volatile random-access memory (RAM), programmable read-only memory(PROM), electronically erasable programmable read-only memory (EEPROM)and the like. Memory M or a separate memory contains the operatingsystem, data base and application software that operates processor P asvoting machine 2M.

[0062] Alternatively, various programming information, a voting sessionidentifier generator or list, voting information, candidate and officeinformation and the like may be provided in firmware, such as in anEPROM, which provides additional resistance to tampering and/or hackingattack. Such firmware may be utilized, for example, for controlling thereading and writing of information to optional smart cards SC, thestoring of voting record information in memory M, particularly, aspecific memory device such as a memory chip card, an optical disk ortape, or other electronic, magnetic or optical media. Preferably, memoryM of voting machine 2M includes two independent non-volatile memorydevices so that voting record information and a voting sessionidentifier are stored on two separate, independent memory devices forredundancy and preservation of at least one copy of the accumulatedvoting records in the event one of the memory devices fails or otherwisebecomes inoperative. Desirably, the two non-volatile memories are ofdifferent types, such as a semiconductor memory and a hard disk, or amemory card and an optical disk, or any other convenient combination.

[0063] Voter interface VI may be a standard or custom keyboard, as mayfacilitate write-in voting, or may be dedicated vote buttons or switchessimilar to conventional mechanical voting machines, for example, or maybe a touch-screen interface associated with display unit DU, and istypically connected to processor P via cabling. Special keys can beprovided for voting functions such as “Elect” or “Select” or “Vote,” orfor “Erase” or “Change,” or for “Write-in.” Alternative voter interfacesVI may include voice recognition apparatus, Braille keyboards or pensystems with writing recognition interfaces, each preferably withconfirmation of the data entered displayed on display unit DU or evenaurally via headphones. For a “standard” computer keyboard, for example,it is preferred that the “function keys,” i.e. those keys that can beused for a purpose other than voting, such as to access and/or controlthe operating system and other programs, e.g., the F1-F12 keys, bedisabled or rendered inoperative, either by software control or physicalmeans.

[0064] In addition, a voter interface VI for allowing visually impairedvoters to vote without assistance may employ a modified standardkeyboard of which only certain keys are responded to in combination withan aural device. E.g., only the four keys (buttons) at the corners of anumeric keypad or the four areas (buttons) in the four corners of atouch screen may be enabled to indicate possible selections such asvote, skip, next, previous, and the like, with audible voiceinstructions and confirmation of buttons pressed provided via aheadphone. A typical function assignment to the corner keys can include:upper right key=“repeat” (to hear voice message again), lower rightkey=“Enter” (to make a selection within the allotted time), lower leftkey=“Cast Vote” (and proceed to the next contest), and upper rightkey=“Increase Speed” (to increase the rate at which contests and/orvoice indications are presented). Any or all of these functional keysmay be exaggerated in size or otherwise made easily distinguished bytactile feel. Such keyboard/button programming is commonly provided bysoftware.

[0065] Display unit DU may be of any suitable type, such as aconventional cathode ray tube or computer display, an LCD display, atouch-screen display or other suitable device, for displayingalphanumeric and/or graphical information, or a set of illuminatedbuttons, as desired, and is typically connected to processor P viacabling. Display unit DU may also include Braille devices, auralinformation via headphones, or other devices specially suited for peoplewith handicaps.

[0066] Operatively associated with or coupled to processor P and memoryM are a printer LP for providing a tangible record of the votingsession, e.g., a printed paper receipt and an optional smart cardreader/writer R.W. for writing and/or reading information from/to asmart card. Preferably, local printer LP and optional reader/writer R.W.are built into the physical container V.C. of voting machine 2M alongwith processor P, memory or memories M, display DU and voter interfaceVI, and that physical container V.C. is rugged and sealable for securityand to prevent unauthorized access to the components therein, therebybeing resistant to tampering. Other voting booth components, such as aprivacy curtain, the opening and closing mechanism therefor, or a floorstand, need not be part of voting machine container V.C., but may bepermanently or demountably attached thereto as is convenient.

[0067] Optional smart card reader/writer R.W. is operatively associatedwith or coupled to processor P and memory M for writing informationincluding at least a unique voting session identifier and a votingrecord into the memory of a smart card SC and optionally for readinginformation, such as voter registration and/or identifying information,from a smart card. Each voting session identifier is arandomly-generated unique identifying or serial number or charactersequence (e.g., a pseudo-random number) of at least eight characters ordigits, and preferably of 12 or more characters or digits. Such votingsession identifiers are generated for each voting session of eachelection, either centrally and then loaded into memories M of votingmachines 2M or by processor P as each voter participates in a votingsession. It may be desirable for the voting session identifiers toinclude additional characters identifying voting district and/or thepolling place and/or the voting machine 2M on which the vote associatedwith the identifying number was cast, and/or the date and time of thevoting session, but not the voter, so as to preserve voter anonymitywhile providing traceability of voting records. If any informationparticular to an individual voter is stored in the memory of smart cardSC, as may be the case where information confirming voter registrationor an identifying PIN number, security code or other personal data isutilized, such information is written over or erased or otherwiserendered permanently unrecoverable either before or at the time thatvoting record and voting session identifier information is stored in thememory of smart card SC by reader/writer R.W. of voting machine 2M.

[0068] For optical ballot voting, voting machine 2M generates a ballotformat 100 for a particular jurisdiction, for example, according to apre-programmed ballot information and/or in response to the votingjurisdiction information corresponding to the voter's VID number (fields381-386) as entered via voter interface VI and/or a smart card andreader R.W., as the case may be. The ballot format is generated byprocessor P as described above and in incorporated patent applicationsSer. Nos. 09/737,306 and 10/255,348, with a format layout for contests110 consistent with local election requirements rather than as a seriesof voting screens. Ballot 100 so generated is printed by printer LP andis provided to the voter, e.g., by hand for provisional voting and/or bymail for absentee voting. Ballots 100 may be printed in advance of anelection and/or may be printed during an election on a demand, i.e. asneeded, basis.

[0069] If reader/writer R.W. is a contact-type reader for use withcontact-type smart cards, then the smart card SC is inserted into slot Sthereof to be read and/or written to. If reader/writer R.W. is awireless or contact-less-type reader for use with wireless orcontact-less-type smart cards, then the smart card SC is placedproximate to antenna AN of reader/writer R.W. to be read from and/orwritten to. If reader/writer R.W. is of a type for use with bothcontact-type and wireless or contact-less-type smart cards, then thesmart card SC is inserted into slot S if it is a contact-type smart cardand is placed proximate to antenna AN if it is a wireless-type smartcard, or is either inserted into slot S or is placed proximate antennaAN if it is a so-called “combos-card” that combines both externalcontacts and an internal antenna so that it can be read from or writtento either via contacts or a wireless communication.

[0070] Further, while optional smart card encoder R.W. need only be ableto write information to a smart card, it may also read informationstored in a smart card SC and provide same to processor P. Reader/writerR.W. may also be a decoder to decode information read from a smart cardSC in encrypted or encoded form, and/or may also be a coder thatencrypts or encodes information being written to the smart card SC. Suchencryption and/or encoding may use public key encryption or any othersuitable encryption and/or coding arrangement. Optionally, andpreferably, reader/writer R.W. may include a “take-in” or capturemechanism that grabs smart card SC when it is inserted into slot S and,after the voting record and voting session identifier information isstored in the memory of smart card SC, deposits smart card SC into asecure collection box CB operatively associated with reader/writer R.W.and located in voting machine cabinet V.C. If this option is utilized,and it may be utilized with either contact-type or wireless smart cardsSC, a separate collection box CB and action by each voter to deposit hisor her smart card SC therein is not needed.

[0071] Local printer LP may provide a tangible independent record ofeach individual voter's voting selections associated with the voter'sunique identifying number and/or may be utilized to print ballots 100.Printer LP if utilized for printing voting receipts is of a type thatretains no record of the data printed (e.g., is not a daisy wheel orother printer employing a ribbon or other sheet-type ink source fromwhich information printed may be extracted or reconstructed) such as athermal printer, a dot matrix printer, an ink-jet printer, a bubble jetprinter, a laser printer and the like, which are conventional. Aspecialty or security-type of paper, or other medium makingauthentication of a printed receipt and/or a printed ballot 100 easierand counterfeiting of altering of same more difficult, can be utilized,thereby reducing the likelihood of counterfeiting or fraud. Desirably,printer LP also prints information identifying the election district,the date and time of voting and similar information that may help toauthenticate printed receipt PR and/or optical ballot 100.

[0072] The preferred VOTE-TRAKKER™ voting system and apparatus asillustrated by FIG. 4 is provided in incorporated patent applicationsSer. Nos. 09/737,306 and 10/255,348. Desirably, the VOTE-TRAKKER™ votingsystem and apparatus provides redundancy for voting record and votingsession identifier data in that each vote is recorded by at least oneadditional independent and verifiable means: to wit, by electronicrecording in the memory of a smart card separate from the voting machineand the printed record. This apparatus, and the method it performs, canprovide 100% transparency of each and every vote and can maintain 100%privacy and confidentiality of each and every voter and vote, althoughother embodiments may not do so.

[0073]FIG. 7 is a schematic block diagram illustrating an example ballotreader apparatus 1000 for reading machine-readable ballots 100. Ballotreader apparatus 1000 includes reading device 1010 that has an inputcontainer 1020 into which ballots 100 to be read are placed for beingfed through transport path 1030 to an output container 1040 into whichballots 100 that have been read as they pass through transport path 1030are deposited, i.e. are collected. Therebetween, ballot transport path1030 defines a path through which ballots 100 are transported for beingread as they are transported between input container 1020 and outputcontainer 1040. Transport path 1030 includes two readers 1031 and 1032of reader device 1010 which read the information and/or markings onballots 100 as they pass thereby. Preferably, ballots 100 areoptically-read ballots 100 of the sorts illustrated in FIGS. 1 and 3A-3Dand readers 1031 and 1032 are optical readers. Member 1034 may be aguide for transport path 1030 that also provides a light shield foroptical readers 1031, 1032.

[0074] It is noted that conventional optical readers have only oneoptical reader and must be preprogrammed with a template correspondingto the particular ballots to be passed therethrough and read, and so theballots must be sorted by jurisdiction and the like so that only ballotsof the same form, i.e. of the form that corresponds to the preprogrammedtemplate, are passed through to be read at any one time. Ballots ofdifferent format must be passed through as separate batches after thecorresponding template therefor has been programmed into the opticalreader. Even if a conventional optical reader were to have two opticalreaders, both optical readers thereof would be programmed for readingthe ballots against the same preprogrammed template, i.e. would be formaking redundant readings for verifying the correctness of eitherreading against one predetermined preprogrammed template.

[0075] On the other hand, reader 1010 includes two readers 1031 and 1032and a processor 1050 that cooperate for reading ballots 100 of differentforms without the need to pre-sort the ballots into groups of like form.Specifically, optical reader 1031 reads ballots 100 for reading the VIDnumber 120 thereon and communicates the VID number 120 to processor1050. Reader 1031 need not read any other part of ballots 100. Processor1050 is responsive to the VID number 120 read from each ballot 100 byreader 1031 to identify and select the ballot template correspondingthereto. Optical reader 1032 reads ballots 100 for reading the markspaces 112 thereon that have been marked for comparison in accordancewith the ballot template selected by processor 1050.

[0076] The VID number 120 read from each ballot 100 by reader 1031should include at least the jurisdictional information fields thereof,e.g., fields 381-386, utilized to identify and select the ballottemplate. Optical reader 1031 should also read the unique random numberfield, e.g., field 387, so that the unique random number portion of VID120 is associated with the stored voting selection information and isavailable for later verification of the ballot and/or of the correctreading thereof, as well as for tracking of his vote by the voter, e.g.,via an Internet or other posting, as described herein. Where VID 120 ison ballot 100 in two different forms, e.g., in machine-readable form andin human-readable form, reader 1000 may have the ability to read bothforms of VID 120, e.g., a bar-code reader and an OCR reader, usually inprocessor 1050.

[0077] Reader 1032 need not read portions of ballot 100 other than thosecontaining valid mark spaces 112 according to the template correspondingto that ballot. The unnecessary portions of ballot 100 not containingvalid mark spaces 112 may either not be read or may be read and thendiscarded while retaining the readings of mark spaces 112. Only imagesof the VID and mark space zones need be obtained and stored fortabulating and/or verifying voting by vote counter 1060. Images of theVID and mark space zones may be stored in any suitable electronic formatincluding but not limited to .BMP, .TIFF, .PDF or any other suitableformat. In this way, the amount of storage capacity needed to store theinformation read from each ballot is substantially reduced because thestandardized information, e.g., names of contests, names of candidates,and the like, are not stored.

[0078] As a result, ballots 100 placed into input container 1020 do nothave to be pre-sorted to be of the same format, but may be of differentformats because readers 1031, 1032 in cooperation with processor 1050determine the proper template to be utilized for reading each ballot 100according to its format. Specifically, because the information in fields381-386 of each VID number 120 printed on each ballot 100 define theparticular voting jurisdiction (e.g., state, county, municipality,precinct, ward and/or political party), they also define the form ofballot 100 for such jurisdiction. From the VID number 120 read byoptical reader 1031, processor 1050 determines the jurisdiction and theballot form therefor and supplies the template therefor for use inconjunction with the pattern of mark spaces 112 marked on ballot 100 fordetermining the voting selections made thereon.

[0079] Simply put and by way of example, reader 1031 reads the VIDnumber 120 from a first ballot 100 of form A and signals same toprocessor 1050 which then provides the mark space template for ballots100 of form A for reading the marked voting selections from first ballot100 read by optical reader 1032. The marked voting selections read byreader 1032 are then tabulated as votes by vote counter 1060. Next,reader 1031 reads the VID number 120 from a second ballot 100 of form Band signals same to processor 1050 which then provides the mark spacetemplate for ballots 100 of form B for reading the marked votingselections from second ballot 100 read by optical reader 1032, whichread marked voting selections are then tabulated as votes by votecounter 1060. Next, reader 1031 reads the VID number 120 from a thirdballot 100 of form C and signals same to processor 1050 which thenprovides the mark space template for ballots 100 of form C for readingthe marked voting selections from third ballot 100 read by opticalreader 1032, which read marked voting selections are then tabulated asvotes by vote counter 1060. If the next ballot is of form B, forexample, reader 1031 reads the VID number 120 from that ballot 100 ofform B and signals same to processor 1050 which then provides the markspace template for ballots 100 of form B for reading the marked votingselections from that ballot 100 read by optical reader 1032, which readmarked voting selections are then tabulated as votes by vote counter1060, and so forth. The process repeats for each ballot read by reader1000 wherein the template for each ballot is selected by processor 1050responsive to the VID number 120 read from that ballot, i.e.,specifically responsive to the jurisdictional information defined infields 121-127 of VID number 120.

[0080] Accordingly, an optical reader for reading paper ballots having ajurisdiction identifier thereon and having voting selections markedthereon, comprises a transport path for transporting paper ballotsbetween an input and an output thereof; a first optical reader forreading the jurisdiction identifier of each paper ballot transported onsaid transport path, and a second optical reader for reading the votingselections marked on each paper ballot transported on said transportpath. A processor receives the jurisdiction identifier read by the firstoptical reader for each paper ballot for selecting a template forreading in accordance with the selected template the voting selectionsmarked on each paper ballot, whereby the voting selections marked oneach paper ballot are read in accordance with a template correspondingto the jurisdiction identifier for that paper ballot.

[0081] In addition and optionally, processor 1050 may include opticalcharacter recognition (OCR) software to provide alphanumeric outputs ofthe information in the VID field read by reader 1031 and/or of write-ininformation in the write-in portions of the voting fields read by reader1032 according to the template selected by processor 1050. It ispreferred that reader 1000 move ballots through transport path 1030 atthe rate of at least about 10-12 inches per second (about 25-30 cm/sec.)so that ballots on either 8½×11 inch paper and/or on A paper may be readat a rate of at least about one ballot per second. It is also preferredthat readers 1031 and 1032 have a resolution of at least about 100 dpior greater, and it is desirable in some cases that reader 1000 providedual-side document scanning.

[0082] Reader 1000 may be utilized at a polling place or other votinglocation for “checking” ballots marked by voters prior to their beingvoted, i.e. officially deposited into a collection container. In thiscase, vote counter 1060 is eliminated and no record of the actual votingselections marked is retained; processor 1050 processes only the VIDnumber 120 and the mark space 112 regions to select the correspondingballot template and to verify that the proper number of mark spaces havebeen marked for each contest and/or question.

[0083] Reader 1000 in checking a ballot preferably signals or otherwiseprovides a notice or indication if a ballot is under voted (i.e. lessthan the required number of spaces have been marked for eachcontest/question) or is over voted (i.e. more than the required numberof spaces have been marked for each contest/question, which mayinvalidate a vote in a contest/question or may invalidate an entireballot) or is otherwise incorrectly marked. Ballot checking may beutilized with straight voting, ranked voting, and/or cumulative votingsimilarly, e.g., indicating if improper ranking has been marked and/orif the wrong number of cumulative votes have been marked. While suchchecking function advances the goal that ballots reflect voter intent,it can reduce but not eliminate under voting and over voting; however,it will at least give the voter an opportunity to correct such conditionor at least indicate an intentional “no vote” if a “No Vote” or“Abstain” mark space 112 is marked.

[0084] Ballot checking may avoid or at least mitigate the conditionwhere the intent of the voter cannot be determined because under andover voting can be reduced and/or eliminated. However, where applicablelaw allows, under and over voting in cumulative voting contests may beadjusted and/or rectified when the ballot is counted by applyingproportioning and/or normalizing rules to the votes actually cast bymarking mark spaces, e.g., by adding or subtracting a proportionateweighted vote. Ballot checking may be preformed by a reader 1000 or byan other ballot reader such as a ballot imager based on commercialoffice imaging equipment.

[0085] Reader 1000 utilized for ballot checking may also have a printerassociated therewith for providing a tangible voting record, e.g., aprinted receipt, to each voter, as described in patent applications Ser.Nos. 09/737,306 and 10/255,348. Desirably, such printed receipt includesthe complete VID 120 including the unique random portion 381 so that thevoter may track and verify his vote where the voting results areavailable via an Internet and/or other posting including the VID.Preferably, the VID read from the read ballot is printed on the receipt.If the receipt includes a record of the voter's voting selections, thereceipt also provides an immediate confirmation that the ballot can beread and of the voting selections marked, whereby the voter may seekcorrection of any error and/or omission prior to voting his ballot.

[0086] While the reader arrangement described in the immediatelypreceding paragraphs is preferred, optical ballots 100 including a VIDnumber as described herein may be sorted and read by conventionalreaders in the conventional manner, assuming, of course, that theelection officials are willing and able to sort the paper ballots intogroups of like form and to program the conventional readers for eachparticular ballot form before running ballots of that form therethroughfor counting. Ballot readers as described herein may utilize all or partof conventional ballot readers and/or may utilize parts of conventionaloffice equipment such as copiers, scanners, facsimile (fax) machines,and other commercial imaging and/or scanning devices, and the like,e.g., for imaging and/or optically reading the information contained onan optically-readable paper ballot.

[0087] Examples of conventional ballot readers include the PAGESCAN IIreader available from Peripheral Dynamics, Inc. located in PlymouthMeeting, Pa., and the SCANMARK ES2800 reader available from Scantronlocated in Tustin, Calif. It is noted that such conventional ballotreaders employ sensors positioned on a fixed grid pattern (e.g., incolumns) corresponding to the fixed grid pattern of the mark-sensespaces of the ballot sheets with which they are utilized, and suchreaders do not image a ballot and so they cannot identify or determinepixel density and/or location as may be done for a true ballot image asdescribed herein. Examples of commercial imaging scanners include typesDR5020 and DR5080 available from Canon Electronics, Inc. located inJapan, and type IS330DC available from Ricoh Company located in Japan.Examples of commercial printers suitable for ballot printing include theImageRUNNER 600 and 105 available from Canon Electronics, Inc., andsimilar equipment available from Hewlett Packard of Palo Alto, Calif.and Fujitsu of Japan.

[0088] In addition, a “trial” ballot reader is preferably provided ateach polling place so that a voter has the opportunity to have his votedballot scanned privately and to have the voting selections readtherefrom be displayed to him privately so that the correctness thereofmay be confirmed before the ballot is cast. Preferably, the trial ballotscanner should employ the same reading apparatus and method as theballot scanners that will read the ballot in counting and tabulating thevote. In any event, the trail ballot reader should be “read only” andhave no memory or ability to store or transmit the voting selectionsfrom any ballot, whether by template and/or image, thereby to assureprivacy. I.e. it is for vote checking only.

[0089]FIG. 8 is a schematic flow diagram of an example ballot readingprocess 300 compatible with the apparatus of FIG. 7. Process 300commences with passing 310 the voted ballots through a ballot reader,e.g., along a transport path of an optical scan reader, wherein theballots do not need to be, but may be, sorted according to jurisdictionsand/or ballot formats. The ballots are individually and seriallyread/imaged and the voting information thereon is read/decoded viaeither of alternative processes 320 a or 320 b. Path 320 a comprisesimaging 321 each ballot and then decoding the voting selectioninformation thereon in two decoding steps 323, 327. Path 320 b comprisesreading the ballots in two steps 322, 326, wherein the voting selectioninformation is read in second reading step 326. In either path, theballot template (e.g., a set of computer instructions and/or statementsand/or data defining a pattern of ballot mark spaces for a ballot) forreading/decoding the voting information is selected responsive to thevoting identifier and/or ballot identifier read/decoded in the firstreading/decoding step 322, 323.

[0090] Ballot imaging process 320 a comprises imaging 321 the ballot toacquire an image of the voting information thereon and then decoding 323a ballot identifier (e.g., VID) from the ballot image. While the entireballot identifier (e.g., VID) may be decoded, only that portion thereofthat contains jurisdiction information (e.g., ones of fields 381-386)need be decoded; decoding the unique random identifier portion (e.g.,field 387) is optional). The decoded identifier correlates to aparticular ballot format represented by a ballot template, and theballot template corresponding to the decoded identifier is selected 325from a database or other collection and/or set of ballot templates fordecoding 327 the voting selection information from the ballot imagepreviously imaged 321. Thus, each ballot of a mixed set of ballots isread (decoded) according to a template corresponding to the particularballot format to obtain the voting selection information thereon.

[0091] Ballot imaging process 320 b comprises reading 322 the ballot toread a ballot identifier (e.g., VID) thereon, typically in a predefinedlocation, area or region of the ballot. While the entire ballotidentifier (e.g., VID) may be read, only that portion thereof thatcontains jurisdiction information (e.g., ones of fields 381-386) need beread; reading the unique random identifier portion (e.g., field 387) isoptional). The read identifier correlates to a particular ballot formatrepresented by a ballot template, and the ballot template correspondingto the read identifier is selected 324 from a database or othercollection and/or set of ballot templates for reading 326 the votingselection information from the ballot. While the entire ballot may beread 326, only that portion containing voting selection informationaccording to the selected template 324 need be read. Thus, each ballotof a mixed set of ballots is read according to a template correspondingto the particular ballot format to obtain the voting selectioninformation thereon.

[0092] It is noted that the foregoing reading/imaging 321, 322, 323,326, 327 of the VID and voting selections, and the template selecting324, 325, and/or the tabulating 330 and storing 332, may be performed in“real-time” as each ballot is read, i.e., the voting selections areread/decoded, stored 332 and tabulated 330 substantiallycontemporaneously with the ballot passing through reader 1010.Alternatively, the VID and voting selections read/imaged 321, 322, 326may be stored in “real-time” as each ballot passes through reader 1010,and the template selecting 324, 325, the decoding/reading 322, 323,326,327 of the stored VID and voting selections, and the tabulating 330and storing 332 thereof may be performed after some or all of theballots have passed through reader 1010, i.e. delayed in time.

[0093] It is further noted that in reading ballot 100, it is preferredthat the ballot image be read/decoded 326, 327 to determine whether ornot all of the mark spaces 112 as defined 324, 325 by the appropriateballot template, and the indicia 122, if any, are present in the ballotimage, thereby to enable detection of an anomalous and/or erroneousballot 100, and/or to detect that a ballot 100 is, e.g., folded, torn,altered or otherwise incomplete or incorrect. Where an indicia 122 isemployed to define the orientation of each ballot and a VID is employedto define the ballot form, the ballots may be in any order andorientation, the ballots need not be sorted by jurisdiction and/orvoting district or the like and need not be placed in a givenorientation prior to being read/imaged and /or decoded 321, 322, 323,326, 327.

[0094] The voting selection information read/decoded 326, 327 istabulated 330 for counting the vote and determining an electionoutcome/result. The read/decoded 326, 327 voting selection informationmay be stored 332, e.g., for later verification, auditing, confirmationand/or comparison with the paper ballots and the like, and may beprinted and/or otherwise published 334, in whole or in part, inconnection therewith. The steps of tabulating 330, storing 332 and/orprinting/publishing 334 may be either or without the voter identifier(e.g., VID) and/or other ballot identifier.

[0095] In addition, it is sometimes, if not usually, preferred that theprinting and/or publishing 334 of voting results be positively blockedprior to a predetermined time, e.g., prior to the end of the time forvoting. This, for example, allows absentee ballots received prior to theelection to be authenticated, read and/or tabulated prior to the end ofthe election period while the results thereof are not available untilafter the time for voting is completed. Advantageously, this may allowelection personnel to more efficiently process both absentee ballots andthe regular voted ballots.

[0096] An advantage may obtain, however, where the tabulated 330 and/orstored 332 voter selection information is associated with the identifierwhere the identifier is not related and/or relatable to the identity ofa particular voter, i.e. the voter remains anonymous. In such case,particular ballots can be inspected against the electronic recordswithout compromising voter anonymity and privacy, including publishingvoting results on a ballot-by ballot basis, e.g., via the Internet, asdescribed in incorporated patent applications Ser. Nos. 09/737,306 and10/255,348. Such ability to verify that a ballot has been received andhas been counted could be desirable for absentee and/or provisionalvoters, as well as for general voting.

[0097]FIG. 9 is a schematic flow diagram illustrating details of aportion of the ballot reading process 300 of FIG. 8. In particular, anexample of details relating to the steps of decoding 327 votingselections, reading 326 voting selections and/or tabulating 330 votingselections using the selected 324, 325 ballot template are illustrated.In a preferred embodiment, ballots are imaged, read and/or decoded 320a, 320 b irrespective of the orientation of each ballot as it is passedthrough the ballot reader and/or irrespective of the jurisdiction,voting district, precinct and the like to which it pertains.

[0098] First, the orientation of each ballot is determined 340 from thelocation(s) of one or more indicia disposed in an asymmetrical patternon the ballot, and then the ballot image and/or the selected 324, 325template therefor is electronically oriented to be in the sameorientation. Before, after, and/or contemporaneously therewith, theballot is tested or checked 342 to verify that it is a complete ballot,i.e. that it includes all of the indicia 122 and marking space 112outlines that the ballot should include as defined by the selected 324,325 template, and so is not torn, folded, altered and the like. If theballot is not complete 342, path “N” is taken and the ballot isrejected, e.g., is physically separated from the other ballots formanual verification and processing.

[0099] If the ballot is complete 342, the path “Y” is taken and theballot is tested 346 to determine whether there is any write-in votingselection thereon. If testing 346 finds any one or more write-in votingselections, the path “Y” is taken and, preferably, the portion(s) of theballot image containing a write-in voting selection(s) are stored 366,preferably along with the ballot VID for later verification, ifnecessary or desired. Typically, write-in voting selections areprocessed separately from voting selections from among the nominatedcandidates or other regular voting selections. Ballot processing thenproceeds to the detail steps of decoding 350 the regular votingselections, i.e. those made by mark space(s) 112.

[0100] If testing 346 finds no write-in voting selection is present,then path “N” is taken directly to the detail decoding 350 of regularvoting selections. Decoding 350 includes a number of steps thatdetermine whether each mark space 112 has been marked to indicate that avoting selection has been made or has not been so marked. For example,the pixels of the ballot image, e.g., in a TIFF or BMP or otherbitmapped or pixelated format, for each mark space 112 are tested todetermine whether it is a “light” (e.g., not marked) pixel or a “dark”(e.g., marked) pixel. The number of “light” and “dark” pixels for eachmark space 112 are counted 352 and the counts of “light” and “dark”pixel are stored 354. Preferably, the ballot VID is associated with thestored counts of “light” and “dark” pixels thereof, e.g., for auditingand/or recount. If a sufficient portion of the tested pixels in a givenmark space are “dark” pixels, then that mark space 112 is considered tobe marked, e.g., as described below.

[0101] Testing 356 determines whether all of the mark spaces 112 of acontest have been counted 352 and the counts thereof stored 354. If not,path “N” is taken to go to 358 the next region of the contest repeat thepixel counting 352 and storing 354 until all of mark spaces 112 havebeen processed. When all mark spaces 112 of a contest have beenprocessed, the path “Y” is taken from testing 356 to determine 360whether the contest has been voted properly, i.e. whether the propernumber of mark spaces have been marked. If the proper number of markspaces 112 have been marked, the path “Y” is taken and the votingselection for that contest is counted 362. If either too many (overvote) or too few (under vote) mark spaces 112 have been marked, the path“N” is taken and the under vote or over vote is stored for laterprocessing. If an under vote, the voting selections made can be counted362, if the applicable law allows.

[0102] In addition, if there is a write-in voting selection, the factthereof is tested 368 with the affirmative result of the all regionscounted test 356 at path “Y” to determine 368 whether the contest isvoted properly considering the presence of a write-in voting selection.If not, then path “N” is taken and an over vote or under vote isrecorded 364. If the voting selection is determined 368 to be proper,then path “Y” is taken and the write-in voting selection is processed380.

[0103] Following the counting of a voting selection 362, an under voteor over vote 364 or a “Y” determination 368, testing 370 determineswhether all contests for that ballot have been counted and processed. Ifnot, path “N” is taken to the next contest 372 which is then processed350 and so forth as described. If yes, path “Y” is taken and the nextballot is then processed in like manner to that just described until allof the ballots have been processed and the voting selections thereonhave been counted and tabulated 330.

[0104] Separate processing 380 of write-in voting selections may proceedas follows, typically after all the regular voting selections have beentabulated. Optionally, the write-in voting selections may be convertedto alphanumeric characters by optical character recognition (OCR) 382.The stored 366 images of the write-in voting selections are accumulated384, with their corresponding OCR result, if any, and are displayed formanual processing 386, including validation, by election officials. Thedisplay may be on a computer display or the like or may be a printedform, as may be desired and/or required by applicable law.

[0105] Preferably, write-in voting selection images are “clipped” fromthe ballot images and have the ballot VID associated therewith, andplural clipped images are displayed on one screen or printed on onepage. Manually processed 386 valid write-in voting selections arecounted and tabulated 330 with the total vote. In processing write-invoting selections, either the clipped image is displayed, or if theballot VID is associated therewith, the entire ballot image may bedisplayed or the original ballot may be retrieved for use in manualprocessing 386. Where the ballots are read, not imaged, based uponcomparison to a ballot template, only the result of reading the ballotis stored, and so the original ballot is preferably separated and keptfor manual processing 386 of write-in voting selections.

[0106] A typical ballot image in a pixel or bitmap format may have afile size in the range of 3-500 kilobytes, depending upon the format andthe degree of file compression utilized, but could be as large as 1-10megabytes without file compression. A computer hard drive of the sorttypically found in a current commercially available personal computer,e.g., of 60-100 gigabytes capacity, can easily store full-ballot images(of nominal or average 500 kilobyte size) for a population of 100,000voters. One or more servers may be utilized for storing ballot imagesfor a population of one million or more voters.

[0107] Typically, full ballot images are stored initially on the harddrive of a computer and are later transferred to permanent storagemedia, e.g., a “write-once, read-many” (WORM) medium such as a CR-Rdisk, for long-term storage. Reduced images, whether by compressionand/or by “clipping” the portions of the ballot image that include markspaces, write-in voting spaces, identifiers and the like, and otherinformation pertinent to voting selection other than the standardinformation and candidates names printed on the ballot, may be utilizedto reduce the quantity of information that needs be processed oncounting and tabulating the vote and/or that needs to be stored. Suchtechniques can be utilized reduce the size of each ballot image file toas low as 10 kilobytes or less.

[0108]FIGS. 10A, 10B, and 10C are schematic diagrams of mark spaces 112of a ballot 100 marked in a variety of ways and of enlarged diagramsillustrating details thereof, and are helpful to understanding apreferred aspect for counting voting selections of the method describedherein.

[0109]FIG. 10A illustrates some of the various ways that a voter maymark a mark space 112 in making a voting selection. For example, markspace 112 a has been fully marked by the voter so that it is essentially100% filled in and there is no question that the voter intended to markthat region 112 a and it should be counted as a vote. Mark space 112 bis partially marked and may be about 50% filled in, and it is likely thevoter intended to mark that region 112 b and it should be counted as avote. Similarly, mark spaces 112 c, 112 d and 112 e are marked with acheck, a large X and a small x, respectively, and it is likely that themark was intended and should be counted as a vote. However, mark space112 f contains a small mark that may be an intended or unintended marktherein, and so may or may not be counted as a vote.

[0110] Each ballot image captured by ballot reader in reading ballots100 must be read to determine which ones of mark spaces 112 thereon havebeen marked sufficiently to count as being marked to indicate a votingselection and which ones have not. The ballot reader produces a ballotimage, whether of the entire ballot or only of portions thereof selectedin accordance with the applicable ballot template, that is preferably ina pixelated or bitmapped format, e.g., a TIFF or a BMP image, or otherbitmapped format. Ballot images in such format may be produced directlyby a commercially available office copier or scanner or may be convertedto such format, if necessary, or may be provided by a specialized ballotscanning apparatus.

[0111]FIG. 10B illustrates a reading region 130 of a ballot whichcontains a marked mark space 112. Based on the applicable ballottemplate, e.g., the template selected 324, 325 from among the possibleballot templates using the VID number read/decoded 322, 323 from theballot, a number of reading regions 130 each including one mark space112 are selected from the ballot image. Each reading region 130 ispreferably slightly larger than and includes one mark space 112. Eachregion includes a large number of pixels 132 as illustrated by thedotted grid lines, e.g., representing an over scan of mark space 112.Mark space 112 includes mark 140, e.g., a mark made by a voter toindicate a voting selection.

[0112] For clarity, only a few rows and columns of pixels areillustrated, it being understood that a large number, e.g., 800-1000pixels is typical. In one embodiment, reading region 130 includes about900 pixels. Because each reading region 130, whether or not marked by avoter, includes the printed outline of mark space 112, a predeterminednumber of the pixels representing the mark space 112 outline will be“dark” pixels. In one embodiment, the outline of mark space 112 includesabout 100 dark pixels, with a tolerance of about ±40 pixels due toballot to ballot variations, e.g., printing variations, outline-to-pixelpattern registration differences, reading/imaging differences, scannerlighting variations, sensor noise, and the like.

[0113] One preferred arrangement for determining whether a mark space112 has been marked to indicate a voting selection is as follows. Themaximum number of pixels 132 that a mark 140 could darken (i.e. thenumber of “markable pixels”) is determined by subtracting the number ofpixels of the outline of mark space 112 from the total number of pixels132 in reading region 130. For the example embodiment, the number ofmarkable pixels is 900−100=800 pixels.

[0114] A predetermined threshold of dark markable pixels (e.g., the“voted threshold”) is established for determining that a mark space 112has been marked (voted). For example, voted thresholds of between about20% and about 50% of the maximum number of markable pixels 132 have beenfound satisfactory, and are preferred, although higher or lower votedthresholds are satisfactory and may be utilized. If a higher percentagevoted threshold were to be utilized, the effect is that the voter isbeing required to more fully darken the mark space 112 in order for avoting selection to be considered as such. If a lower percentage votedthreshold is established, then mark space 112 outlines having a positivetolerance and/or reading “noise” could determine that a voting selectionhas been made when none was intended. In some tests, thresholds of about10% and less were found to produce readings of a voting selection wherenone was intended.

[0115] To determine whether a voting selection has been made in a givenmark space 112, the number of pixels of the mark space outline issubtracted from the number of marked pixels, and the difference iscompared with the predetermined voted threshold. This providesadditional safety margin against erroneous reading because the number ofdark pixels of the mark space outline is subtracted both in calculatingthe voted threshold and in determining the number of pixels that havebeen read as marked by the voter.

[0116] In the example embodiment, a voted threshold of 20% is equal to160 marked pixels (20% of 800 markable pixels), and a threshold of 50%is equal to 400 marked pixels, in a reading region 130. It is noted thatusing the lower voted threshold of 20% requires that at least 160 markedpixels be present which is about four times the expected tolerance of 40pixels of the outline of mark space 112 and so an unmarked mark space112 will be unlikely to be erroneously determined to be a votingselection.

[0117] An advantage obtains where the counts of the numbers of “light”and “dark” pixels are stored for each mark space 112 of each ballot, asis preferred, but is not necessary, as described above. After theballots are read/imaged, their “light” and “dark” pixels counted andstored, and voting selections counted and tabulated with a givenpredetermined voted threshold, the predetermined voted threshold may bechanged and the voting selections recounted and re-tabulated using thestored “light” and “dark” pixels counts, without having to again scanthe ballots. This is performed quickly and electronically, without theneed for scanning or otherwise processing the original paper ballots,and ballot images may be inspected in case of a question.

[0118] Thus the effect of changing the value of the predetermined votedthreshold on the tabulated election result may be determined, and may becompared with the election result (e.g., the vote margin of the winningcandidate) for determining whether that effect is significant withrespect to the outcome of the election. Where the ballot VID isassociated with the stored pixel counts, as is optional but ispreferred, the ballots for which the reading of the voting selection ischanged by the changing of the predetermined voted threshold may beidentified, and may be obtained for visual inspection by votingofficials. Typically, the differences in reading voting selectionsprovided by the foregoing ballot reading and counting arrangement havebeen found to be relatively small, and so would not be significant interms of an election result in all but the closest of elections.

[0119] Because the counts of dark and light pixels are stored in thepixel-based preferred arrangement, it is quite easy to vary thepredetermined threshold for what is and is not a voted (marked) markspace and to determine the variance if either a higher or lowerthreshold had been utilized (i.e. a higher or lower percentage of filledarea of the mark spaces 112). For example, a typical predeterminedthreshold level might be set at 20%, 25%, 30%, 35% or 40%. Once thevotes are read and counted using the predetermined threshold, it isquite easy to perform one or more recounts with the threshold set at ahigher or lower threshold level utilizing the stored counts of light anddark pixels without having to re-scan (re-image) and reprocess theballots.

[0120] For example, where the ballots are initially read and decodedutilizing a predetermined threshold of 30%, the results can be testedand compared simply by setting the predetermined threshold to 20% andrecounting using the stored counts of light and dark pixels and then toset the predetermined threshold to 40% and again recounting using thesame stored counts of light and dark pixels. The differences in votetallies generated using different predetermined thresholds of light anddark pixels will determine the sensitivity of the vote count to therelative level of marking filling of the vote selection mark spaces.

[0121] Further, where the preferred arrangement is employed wherein theballot identifier (VID) is associated with the ballot image and thestored counts of light and dark pixels, the voting results obtained foreach ballot for each predetermined threshold level may be compared andthe ballots for which the voting result changes when the predeterminedthreshold is varied may be identified by their respective ballotidentifiers (VIDs) and may then be retrieved for manual inspection,e.g., by an election official and/or a court or other authorityconducting an examination of the voting result.

[0122] Thus, the described arrangement facilitates the identification ofthose ballots for which voter intent may be in issue and also providesmeans whereby the ballots in question may be identified and evaluatedautomatically and without subjective human intervention. If thisarrangement had been utilized in the November 2000 presidential electionin the United States, for example, then the recounting of votes incertain counties of the state of Florida would have been much quickerand accurate, and may have been freed from the taint and embarrassmentof partisan human interpretation.

[0123]FIG. 10C illustrates an enlarged view of a portion of readingregion 130 which contains a portion of a mark 140 in mark space 112 (orof an outline of a mark space 112). Therein, dashed lines indicate rowsa, b, c, . . . and columns 1, 2, 3, . . . of pixels 132 on which aportion of a mark 140 (or a mark space 112 outline) is superimposed, andpixels 132 are designated as “x-y” where “x” is the letter of the rowthereof and “y” is the number of the column thereof, e.g., the pixel atrow a, column 1, is designated as pixel “a-1.” It is seen that while amark 140 completely fills some pixels 132, it does not either completelyfill or completely not fill all pixels 132. Thus a criteria is needed todetermine whether any given pixel is “dark” or is “light,” i.e. is notdark.

[0124] One convenient criteria is that the pixel is considered “light”if the intensity (brightness) of a pixel is greater than 50% of fullbrightness and is considered “dark” if its intensity (brightness) isless than 50% of full brightness, although any other suitable levelcould be utilized. Thus, illustrated pixels b-1, c-1, c-4, and f-7,among others, are “light” and illustrated pixels f-3, d-6, c-7 and b-8,among others, are “dark.” Other illustrated pixels, such as pixels f-2,e-3, g-3 and e-6, among others, are more than 50% covered by mark 140and so would be considered “dark” pixels, while illustrated pixels f-1,b-6, f-5 and d-8, among others, are less than 50% covered by mark 140and so would be considered “light” pixels.

[0125] Pixel intensity (brightness) is tested for each pixel and eachpixel is determined to be either “light” or “dark” and the total numbersof “light” and “dark” pixels, respectively, are counted for each readingregion 130, as described above. Because the processing of each readingregion 130 as described above makes provision for variations in readingcharacteristics, the accuracy of counting of voting selections is notparticularly sensitive to the predetermined intensity threshold that isutilized for determining “light” and “dark” pixels. It is noted that thepreferred threshold of 50% is symmetrical and tends to avoid astatistical bias towards determining whether any given pixel is a“light” pixel or a “dark” pixel.

[0126]FIG. 11 is a schematic flow diagram of an example process 400 forgenerating the ballots of FIGS. 1, 3A-3D and 4. In process 400, a ballotis generated 410, 410′ including the contests and/or questions to bepresented to the voters generated from information entered by electionofficials prior to an election. Typically, election officials generate adatabase 408 of ballot forms (styles) for the various jurisdictions,districts, polling locations and the like, and in the case of a primary,for each political party, each being associated with a particularjurisdictional portion of the voter identifier (VID). In printingballots, the appropriate form/style is selected from the database 408thereof in accordance with the jurisdictional portion of a particularVID, e.g., ballot generation as described herein and/or in incorporatedpatent applications Ser. Nos. 09/737,306 and 10/255,348.

[0127] Ballots may be generated 410 with a complete voter identifier(VID), i.e. an identifier including the jurisdictional information(e.g., fields 381-386) and a unique random identifier (e.g., field 387),and printed 412 as a set of unique ballots, either in advance of anelection and/or “on-demand” in an election. Ballots may be generated410′ with a partial voter identifier (VID), i.e. an identifier includingthe jurisdictional information (e.g., fields 381-386), and printed 412′as a set of identical ballots either in advance of an election (e.g.,conventional printing) and/or “on-demand” in an election. Such ballotsmay be utilized directly, i.e. without the unique identifier portion ofthe VID, or a unique random identifier (e.g., field 387) portion of avoter identifier may be generated 414 and may be printed 416 on theballots to provide a set of unique ballots and/or may be printed onlabels to be affixed to the printed ballots at a later time. A list ofthe voter identifiers utilized on ballots may be retained, e.g., in adatabase on a computer, for later use in verifying and/or authenticatingvoted ballots received 424, and may be without compromising voteranonymity and privacy where no record is kept that could relate aparticular ballot to a particular voter. Further, printed ballotsincluding the VID may be placed into envelopes, e.g., absentee ballotsplaced into mailing envelopes, by automated equipment to reduce thepossibility of human action that may compromise privacy and/oranonymity.

[0128] In either case, the printed ballots with a complete VID and/orwith a partial jurisdictional VID are distributed 420 for being utilizedby voters in voting in an election in accordance with the applicableelection procedure, e.g., by marking their voting selections in the markspaces provided. It is noted that the ballots may be distributed 420 inadvance of an election, e.g., as absentee ballots or as ballots forearly voting, may be distributed 420 during an election as the usualballot for all voters, e.g., at polling locations on an election day ordays, and/or may be distributed 420 to particular voters, e.g., tovoters voting provisionally.

[0129] Absentee ballot envelopes may be printed in like manner to thatemployed for printing ballots, i.e. either as a batch printing process412 and/or on demand 412′-416. An envelope voter identifier (EVID) maybe printed on each envelope or later applied, e.g., by label, thatincludes fields identifying the jurisdiction and ballot type, with orwithout a unique randomly-generated identifier, in similar manner to theVID utilized on the ballot. The EVID may be utilized to identify theenvelope/ballot upon distribution 420, e.g., sending/mailing out to thevoter, and upon return 424, and facilitates automated placement ofballots into envelopes as described.

[0130] Marked (voted) ballots are received 424, e.g., by electionofficials, the ballots having been submitted by mail, in-person or otherdelivery method, e.g., in the case of absentee ballots or ballots forearly voting, by deposit in ballot containers or delivery to an electionofficial at a polling location or other designated location, e.g., asthe usual ballots voted and/or as provisional ballots. Ballots voted asabsentee, early and/or provisional voting ballots are typically sealedin a plain opaque envelope after the voter marks his voting selectionsthereon and the plain envelope is then sealed inside an opaque outerenvelope on which is marked the voter's name and address, the election,jurisdiction, date, and/or other particulars, and a voter signature,and/or the identification and signature of a witness. Each ballot isverified 430, i.e. the information on the outer envelope is utilized byelection officials to determine whether the ballot sealed therein shouldbe opened and counted. Such determination may include, e.g., whether thevoter is eligible to vote, whether the voter signature on the envelopematches the voter signature in the voter registration records, and/orwhether the ballot is a valid ballot for the particular election(possibly including whether the ballot is a duplicate of another vote inthe name of the voter).

[0131] Upon return 424 of an absentee ballot and before opening it toobtain the ballot therein for counting, the envelope EVID on the outerenvelope is read and is utilized for authenticating/verifying 430 theabsentee ballot and for indicating that the voter to whom is wasprovided has voted and/or for disqualifying the absentee ballot if thevoter has voted in person during the election, thereby to reduce thelikelihood for a voter voting more than once without being detected.Once the absentee ballot is determined 430 to be a valid absentee ballotbased upon the EVID, the envelope is opened and the ballot therein iscounted 430 as described.

[0132] While a record of the VID of ballots sent as absentee ballots maybe retained for verifying that the ballot is an authentic absenteeballot as part of it being counted, it is preferred that the VID andEVID be separate and independent of each other and not linked, so thatthe identity of the voter remains anonymous and his vote remainsprivate. Voter anonymity and/or privacy may also be enhanced wheresubstantial numbers of such ballots are processed together, e.g., whereabsentee and/or provisional ballots are removed from their envelopes.Ballots not validated may be retained either physically and/orelectronically by storing images thereof, and such stored images may berelated to the voter registration database, if desired

[0133] The verified (qualified) received ballots are then read asdescribed herein (e.g., see FIGS. 7 and 8) and tabulated 430, withoutthe need for being sorted by election and/or ballot style and/orjurisdiction before reading and tabulating 430, to determine the resultor outcome of the voting. Before and/or during the reading andtabulating 430, the ballots may be verified/authenticated by comparingthe complete VID number on each ballot against a list of valid VIDnumbers for the election, e.g., a computer database listing the VID ofeach issued ballot, and/or by manual inspection by an election official.

[0134] The result/outcome of the election is certified and/or published432 as required by the applicable election laws. Preferably, thetabulating 430 of voted ballots preserves the specific voting selectionsread from each ballot and the associated VID (e.g., voting record) ofthat ballot, as well as tallying the vote totals for determining theelection outcome, and a listing of the voting selections and VID (votingrecord) from all ballots are published where the public can access same,e.g., on a bulletin board, in a printed publication and/or on anInternet web site. Thus, each voter knowing his VID can access thelisting and find the vote recorded from his ballot by its VID and cansatisfy himself that his vote has been counted and nas been countedcorrectly and accurately. Where the voter retains a copy of his ballotand/or is issued a voting receipt, such may be utilized for correctingan incorrectly recorded vote and/or an improperly disqualified ballotwhere permitted by applicable law.

[0135]FIG. 12 is a schematic flow diagram of an example voting process500 utilizing the ballot of FIGS. 1, 3A-3D and 4. Voting districtspecific ballots are generated 510 and distributed 512 for being voted.Voters vote 514 by marking the mark spaces on the ballot correspondingto their desired voting selections (votes) and submit their ballots inaccordance with applicable election procedure. A voter may copy 516 hismarked ballot for later checking that his vote was counted and wascounted properly. Voted ballots are received 520 and the received votedballots are authenticated 522 before being read and counted. All theforegoing may be as described in relation to FIG. 11.

[0136] Authenticated (valid) ballots are read (scanned) 524 to read theVID number printed thereon and the voting selections marked thereon,i.e. the voting selections marked on each ballot are read according to aballot template corresponding to the jurisdictional portion of the VIDselected based upon the jurisdictional portion of the VID read 524 fromeach ballot. Write-in votes are preferably read and processed 525 byoptical character recognition (OCR) software for computer tabulation,and/or ballots having write-in votes may be separated for manualprocessing (e.g. manual deciphering and posting) 525 and/or inspectionand/or verification. As described, ballots are read 524 according toballot templates selected based upon the read VID and so do not need tobe sorted by jurisdiction and/or style prior to reading 524.

[0137] Ballots over-voted (i.e. wherein more mark spaces than arepermitted to be marked have been marked) may be disposed 526 by beingseparated or ejected for manual inspection and/or invalidation, and/orthe valid portions of the voting selections may be recorded andtabulated 530, depending on the treatment of over-voted ballots underapplicable law. Some jurisdictions invalidate only the voting selectionsmade in over-voted contests and other jurisdictions invalidate an entireballot containing any over-vote. Ballots under-voted (i.e. wherein fewermark spaces than are permitted to be marked have been marked) may berecorded separately 526 and/or the under-vote may be recorded separately526 (e.g., for review and/or for statistical purposes), and the votingselections thereon are recorded and tabulated 530, and/or under-votedballots may be separated for manual inspection, depending on thetreatment of under-voted ballots under applicable law. Further, the readand/or imaged information for each under- and/or over-voted ballot maybe printed out for review by election officials.

[0138] The voting selections from read 524 ballots is recorded 530including the VID number from each ballot, i.e. the voting selectionsand VID of each ballot are recorded and stored as an individual votingrecord, and the voting selections therefrom are also tabulated 530 todetermine the result of voting. Preferably, the information read fromeach ballot, e.g., voting record of voting selections and VID, arestored in plural separate and independent memory devices, e.g., harddrives, flash memories, optical CD-ROM and the like, as described inincorporated patent applications Ser. Nos. 09/737,306 and 10/255,348,for preservation with the original paper ballots in accordance withapplicable procedures.

[0139] When the voting results tabulations are properly verified, theresult is certified 532 as official. Thereafter, the certified resultsmay be posted/published 534, e.g., on an Internet web site, includingboth the tabulated 530 result and/or the voting records including VID ofeach individual ballot, thereby enabling any voter knowing his VID,e.g., from a ballot copy and/or a printed voting receipt, to review 540the voting record corresponding to that VID to ascertain whether it wascounted and, if counted, whether it was correctly counted. Theposted/published 534 voting records can include not only those votingrecords for ballots that were authenticated 522 and thus counted 524,530, but may also include the voting records for ballots that weredisqualified or otherwise not counted and/or not completely countedand/or the fact that the ballot of that VID was disqualified or was notcounted and/or not completely counted.

[0140] In connection with the steps of reading 524, recording andtabulating 530 and/or the processing of write-in, under and over-votes525, 526, 528, for example, election officials may be provided withadministrative and management tools, such as user rights and levels ofaccess, passwords and the like, the keeping of logs of events and/oractions performed, functions to export (e.g., by electronic filetransfer and/or via floppy disks, CD-ROMs and other tangible media) allor part of the files of vote tabulations, voting records, votestatistics and the like, and/or for the printing of various reportsand/or forms, such as vote tallies, voting reports, vote certificationforms and the like.

[0141] While the VID information may be provided to the voter on a paperballot and/or on a paper or other identification card, or may be enteredby an election official at the election office and/or polling place forprinting on a ballot, VID information may be coded into the memory of asmart card and the voting machine may include a smart card reader forreading the coded VID stored therein where the voting machine isutilized to print an optically scan-able ballot including the VID.Identification of the voter at the time for voting may utilize the VIDinformation stored in the voter's smart card, or may be by traditionalidentification methods, such as signature verification, conventionallyutilized by various jurisdictions.

[0142] Alternatively, a unique identifier stored in the voting machinemay be read into the voter's smart card and may either supplement orreplace the voter number stored therein at issuance, whereby thepre-stored voter number may be used to verify registration and/or theunique identifier may be utilized to preserve voter anonymity andprivacy. Preferably for voter privacy, only the unique identifier, e.g.,VID, is stored in the voter smart card and/or on a printed allot at thecompletion of a voting session. A database of unique identifiers validonly for a particular election may be pre-loaded into the votingmachines and/or vote tabulating machines prior to that election, and/orsmart cards may be collected when voted, for security.

[0143] While the present invention has been described in terms of theforegoing exemplary embodiments, variations within the scope and spiritof the present invention as defined by the claims following will beapparent to those skilled in the art. For example, while the identifier(e.g., VID number) of a ballot must be machine readable for automatictabulation of votes, the machine-readable VID may be the same as thedesirable human-readable VID, i.e. alphanumeric characters readable bypeople as well as machines (e.g., readers having OCR) may be utilized.

[0144] Moreover, any arrangement described in relation to a particularform of voting (e.g., absentee or provisional voting) may be utilized inrelation to any other form of voting (e.g., regular or early voting) aswell.

[0145] Further, the identifier (VID) may include any one or more of thefields described and/or additional or different fields, as may beappropriate and/or desirable. Each identifier (VID) includes one or morefields containing a representation of jurisdictional information and/ora ballot form, and may include one or more fields containing a uniquerandom portion. Herein, an identifier may be or be referred to as aballot identifier and/or a voting session identifier, e.g., where theballot is generated with an identifier in a voting session of anelection, i.e. in recording a voter's vote or is generated apart from avoting session and any voter, and/or may be referred to as a voteridentifier in relation to a particular voter (even if random andanonymous).

[0146] Also, and optionally, for weighted and/or ranked voting, theballot may provide for the voter to write-in the weighting and/or rankfor each candidate and/or response in a marking space 112 providedtherefor and the write-in portion may be read and translated intomachine readable form manually. Further, the reader may include an OCRfunction for translating the written weight and/or rank into machinereadable form, and in such case, means for writing in the selection in acommon font easily understood by the reader may be provided. Voterover-voting errors in making weighting and/or ranking preferences may beproportionately corrected automatically, e.g., normalized to the properweight, if the law allows. Under votes may be counted insofar as theyare voted.

[0147] While ballots are generally referred to herein as “paper”ballots, it is understood that while present day sheet ballots aretypically of paper or of a somewhat heavier stock, paper ballot as usedherein is intended to include paper, heavy paper, card stock, cardboard,plastic, punch card and other forms of ballots on a sheet of material.While sheet ballots are most commonly read by optical scanning when theballot passes a light source and the marked/unmarked state of the markregions is sensed by an associated light detector, marking may bedetected by other means such as a mechanical and/or electrical sensingand detecting means.

[0148] Where ballots are separately processed, such processing may beautomated or manual, or may be a combination thereof. Separateprocessing may be utilized where ballots include a write-in vote, anovervote, an undervote, and/o where a ballot appears to be missingvoting mark spaces, ballot identifier and/or fiducial marks, and/orwherein such features have not been properly read and/or imaged.

[0149] In any of the arrangements described herein, a printer may beassociated with a ballot reader, e.g., such as reader 1000 described inrelation to FIG. 7, for providing a voting receipt and/or confirmationthat a ballot has been properly read. Such receipt may be a simpleconfirmation of a readable ballot, a listing of voting selections and/ormay include a printout of a full ballot image, or anything in between.In the latter case, it may be desirable for the printed version of thevoter's ballot to be submitted as the official vote after the voter hasopportunity to verify its accuracy and completeness. The printed ballotversion would have fully blackened mark spaces for each voting selectionmade thereby to further reduce the already extremely low rate ofquestionable vote counting error typically obtained with the describedarrangements.

[0150] In addition, while the apparatus and method herein are typicallydescribed in relation to voting apparatus having a user interface, e.g.,a display and a data entry device such as a touch screen, either or bothmay be eliminated and/or rendered inoperative, if desired, and replacedby the optical ballot reading apparatus such as that described. Further,the apparatus and method herein may be utilized in fields andapplications other than elections and voting, e.g., in thegrading/marking of examinations and tests such as school and universitytests, professional tests, and the like, wherein the voter is a testtaker and an answer sheet replaces the ballot, in the tallying andtabulating of surveys and questionnaires (replacing the ballots), in thereading and tabulation of gaming sheets (replacing the ballots) such asfor races and lotteries, and the like.

What is claimed is:
 1. A machine readable ballot comprising: a ballot sheet having an identifier region thereon wherein an identifier includes at least a representation of jurisdiction information, said ballot sheet having two or more fiducial marks thereon for defining the orientation and the scale of the ballot sheet, said ballot sheet also having a plurality of contest regions thereon, each contest region having two or more mark spaces therein for making voting selections, wherein one of the mark spaces therein represents an abstention selection; wherein the contest regions correspond to contests in the jurisdiction represented by the jurisdiction information, and wherein the representation of jurisdiction information and the mark spaces are machine readable.
 2. The machine readable ballot of claim 1 wherein the identifier includes one or more of a bar code, a two-dimensional bar code, a prescribed font, optical character recognition (OCR) characters, alphanumeric characters, non-alphanumeric characters, and symbols.
 3. The machine readable ballot of claim 1 wherein machine readable includes optically readable, wherein the representation of jurisdiction information and the mark spaces are optically readable.
 4. The machine readable ballot of claim 1 wherein the jurisdiction information of the identifier identifies a template corresponding to the two or more mark spaces for making voting selections in each of the plurality of contest regions.
 5. The machine readable ballot of claim 1 wherein the jurisdiction information relates to any two or more of a country, a state, a county, a city, a town, a municipality, a voting precinct, a voting district, a voting ward, a polling location, and/or a political party.
 6. The machine readable ballot of claim 1 wherein the mark space representing an abstention selection includes a mark space for one or more of a “no vote,” an “abstain,” a “skip contest,” and/or a write in selection.
 7. The machine readable ballot of claim 1 wherein the identifier further includes a unique ballot identifier, and wherein the jurisdiction information and the unique ballot identifier are not related to the identity of any individual voter.
 8. The machine readable ballot of claim 7 wherein the jurisdiction information and the unique ballot identifier are represented by characters that are machine readable and are human readable.
 9. The machine readable ballot of claim 1 wherein a plurality of mark spaces are provided for each voting selection of at least one contest, wherein the plurality of mark spaces for each voting selection are for cumulative voting, ranked voting, and/or instant run-off voting.
 10. The machine-readable ballot of claim 1: wherein said two or more fiducial marks include at least two orientation indicia spaced apart by a predetermined distance for defining a dimension of said ballot sheet; and/or wherein said two or more fiducial marks include one or more of cross-hair lines, cross-hair lines in a circle, targets, bulls-eye shapes, bullets, “+” marks, “X” marks, boxes, any of the foregoing with one or more black, darkened or contrasting adjacent sections, and/or any combination thereof.
 11. The machine-readable ballot of claim 1 wherein said machine-readable ballot comprises a plurality of ballot sheets, each ballot sheet having a machine-readable indicia representative of the page number thereof.
 12. The machine readable ballot of claim 1 wherein said ballot sheet includes paper, heavy paper, card stock, cardboard and/or plastic.
 13. A method for reading paper ballots comprising: imaging each of a plurality of paper ballots transported along a transport path of an office image document scanner to provide a ballot image in a pixelated and/or bitmapped format for each ballot; selecting a template for decoding voting selections marked on each paper ballot responsive to the pixelated and/or bitmapped format ballot image of each paper ballot; decoding from the pixelated and/or bitmapped format ballot image of each paper ballot the voting selections marked on each paper ballot in accordance with the selected template; and tabulating the decoded voting selections decoded from each of the paper ballots consistent with the selected template; whereby the voting selections marked on each paper ballot are decoded and tabulated in accordance with a selected template.
 14. The method of claim 13 wherein each paper ballot has a jurisdiction identifier, and wherein the paper ballots are not sorted according to the jurisdiction identifier prior to said imaging, said method further comprising: decoding the jurisdiction identifier of each paper ballot from the image thereof; and selecting responsive to the decoded jurisdiction identifier the template for decoding the voting selections marked on each paper ballot.
 15. The method of claim 14 wherein the jurisdiction identifier includes one or more of a bar code, a two-dimensional bar code, a prescribed font, optical character recognition (OCR) characters, alphanumeric characters, non-alphanumeric characters, and symbols.
 16. The method of claim 13 wherein each paper ballot has orientation indicia and may be in an orientation different from other ones of the paper ballots, and wherein the paper ballots are not sorted according to orientation prior to said transporting, said method further comprising: determining from the orientation indicia the orientation of each paper ballot; said decoding from the image of each paper ballot the voting selections marked on each paper ballot in accordance with the selected template comprising decoding consistent with the determined orientation of each paper ballot the voting selections marked on each paper ballot in accordance with the selected template.
 17. The method of claim 16: wherein the orientation indicia include at least two orientation indicia spaced apart by a predetermined distance for defining a dimension of the paper ballot; and/or wherein the orientation indicia include one or more of cross-hair lines, cross-hair lines in a circle, targets, bulls-eye shapes, bullets, “+” marks, “X” marks, boxes, any of the foregoing with one or more black, darkened or contrasting adjacent sections, and/or any combination thereof.
 18. The method of claim 13 wherein the office document image scanner includes one or more of a copier, a scanner, a facsimile machine, and/or a commercial imaging and/or scanning device.
 19. The method of claim 13 wherein each paper ballot has a plurality of mark spaces in which voting selections may be made, further comprising: determining from the image of each paper ballot and the selected template whether the mark spaces of each paper ballot correspond to mark spaces of the selected template, if the mark spaces correspond, then performing said decoding voting selections and said tabulating the decoded voting selections for that paper ballot; and if the mark spaces do not correspond, then rejecting the ballot and not performing said decoding voting selections and said tabulating the decoded voting selections for that paper ballot.
 20. The method of claim 13 wherein each paper ballot has a plurality of mark spaces in which voting selections may be marked and wherein said decoding the voting selections marked on each paper ballot comprises: determining a reference value representative of a mark space on each paper ballot that is not marked as a voting selection; determining a marked value representative of each mark space on each paper ballot; and comparing the reference value and the marked value for determining whether a mark space is marked as a voting selection.
 21. The method of claim 13 wherein ones of the plurality of paper ballots are each enclosed in a ballot envelope having a machine-readable ballot identifier and voter information including a signature thereon, said method further comprising, prior to performing the steps set forth in claim 13: imaging each of the ballot envelopes transported along a transport path of an office image document scanner to provide a ballot envelope image in a pixelated and/or bitmapped format for each ballot envelope; decoding the ballot identifier marked on each ballot envelope responsive to the pixelated and/or bitmapped format ballot envelope image thereof; displaying the decoded ballot identifier and voter signature for determining whether the ballot identifier and signature represent a valid ballot; and if the ballot is determined to be valid, removing the paper ballot from the ballot envelope and performing the steps of claim 13 thereon.
 22. The method of claim 13 further comprising prior to said tabulating step: determining from the decoded voting selections whether each paper ballot contains an undervote, an overvote, a missing voting selection, and/or a write-in voting selection; separating each paper ballot determined to contain an undervote, an overvote, a missing voting selection, and/or a write-in voting selection from other paper ballots not determined to contain an undervote, an overvote, a missing voting selection, and/or a write-in voting selection; and then: performing said tabulating step for the other paper ballots not determined to contain an undervote, an overvote, a missing voting selection, and/or a write-in voting selection; and separately processing each separated paper ballot determined to contain an undervote, an overvote, a missing voting selection, and/or a write-in voting selection.
 23. A method for optically reading paper ballots having a jurisdiction identifier and fiducial marks thereon and having voting selections marked thereon, said method comprising: transporting paper ballots along a transport path; determining from the fiducial marks the orientation of each paper ballot; reading consistent with the determined orientation of each paper ballot the jurisdiction identifier of each paper ballot transported along the transport path; selecting a template responsive to the read jurisdiction identifier and determined orientation of each paper ballot for reading the voting selections marked thereon; and reading in accordance with the selected template and consistent with the determined orientation of each paper ballot the voting selections marked on each paper ballot transported along the transport path, whereby the voting selections marked on each paper ballot are read in accordance with a selected template corresponding to the jurisdiction identifier for that paper ballot irrespective of the orientation of the paper ballot.
 24. The method of claim 23: wherein the paper ballots have different jurisdiction identifiers, and wherein the paper ballots are not sorted according to the jurisdiction identifier prior to said transporting; and/or wherein the paper ballots may have different orientations, and wherein the paper ballots are not sorted according to orientation prior to said transporting.
 25. The method of claim 23 wherein said selecting and said reading the voting selections marked on each paper ballot are performed substantially contemporaneously with said transporting of the paper ballots.
 26. The method of claim 23 further comprising: comparing the voting selections read from each ballot to the selected template for providing an indication of an under vote and/or an over vote of each paper ballot; and/or tabulating the voting selections read from each of the paper ballots.
 27. The method of claim 26 wherein said tabulating the voting selections read from each of the paper ballots includes tabulating the voting selections according to a jurisdiction represented by each jurisdiction identifier.
 28. The method of claim 23 wherein the paper ballots each have a corresponding unique ballot identifier, and wherein said reading the jurisdiction identifier includes reading the corresponding unique ballot identifier.
 29. The method of claim 28 further comprising: storing a representation of the voting selections marked on each paper ballot and the unique ballot identifier associated therewith; and/or publishing the voting selections read from each paper ballot and the corresponding jurisdiction identifier and unique ballot identifier of that paper ballot.
 30. The method of claim 23 wherein each paper ballot has a plurality of mark spaces in which voting selections may be marked and wherein said reading the voting selections marked on each paper ballot comprises: determining a reference value representative of a mark space on each paper ballot that is not marked as a voting selection; determining a marked value representative of each mark space on each paper ballot; and comparing the reference value and the marked value for determining whether a mark space is marked as a voting selection.
 31. The method of claim 23 wherein ones of the paper ballots are each enclosed in a ballot envelope having a machine-readable ballot identifier and voter information including a signature thereon, said method further comprising, prior to performing the steps set forth in claim 23: reading the ballot identifier and signature marked on each ballot envelope; displaying the read ballot identifier and signature for determining whether the ballot identifier and signature represent a valid ballot; and if the ballot is determined to be valid, removing the paper ballot from the ballot envelope and then performing the steps of claim 23 thereon.
 32. The method of claim 23 further comprising: determining from the voting selections read from each paper ballot whether each paper ballot contains an undervote, an overvote, a missing voting selection, and/or a write-in voting selection; separating each paper ballot determined to contain an undervote, an overvote, a missing voting selection, and/or a write-in voting selection from other paper ballots not determined to contain an undervote, an overvote, a missing voting selection, and/or a write-in voting selection; tabulating the voting selections read from the other paper ballots not determined to contain an undervote, an overvote, a missing voting selection, and/or a write-in voting selection; and separately processing each separated paper ballot determined to contain an undervote, an overvote, a missing voting selection, and/or a write-in voting selection.
 33. A method for reading paper ballots having a jurisdiction identifier and fiducial marks thereon and having voting selections marked thereon, said method comprising: transporting paper ballots along a transport path; imaging each paper ballot transported along the transport path; determining from the fiducial marks the orientation of each paper ballot; decoding consistent with the determined orientation of each paper ballot the jurisdiction identifier of the image of each paper ballot; selecting responsive to the decoded jurisdiction identifier a template for decoding the voting selections marked on each paper ballot; and decoding consistent with the determined orientation of each paper ballot the voting selections marked on each paper ballot in accordance with the selected template, whereby the voting selections marked on each paper ballot are decoded in accordance with a template corresponding to the jurisdiction identifier for that paper ballot irrespective of the orientation of the paper ballot.
 34. The method of claim 33: wherein the paper ballots have different jurisdiction identifiers, and wherein the paper ballots are not sorted according to the jurisdiction identifier prior to said transporting; and/or wherein the paper ballots may have different orientations, and wherein the paper ballots are not sorted according to orientation prior to said transporting.
 35. The method of claim 33 wherein said selecting and said decoding the voting selections marked on each paper ballot are performed substantially contemporaneously with said transporting of the paper ballots.
 36. The method of claim 33 further comprising: comparing the voting selections decoded from each ballot to the selected template for providing an indication of an under vote and/or an over vote of each paper ballot; and/or tabulating the voting selections decoded from each of the paper ballots.
 37. The method of claim 36 wherein said tabulating the voting selections decoded from each of the paper ballots includes tabulating the voting selections according to a jurisdiction represented by each jurisdiction identifier.
 38. The method of claim 33 wherein the paper ballots each have a corresponding unique ballot identifier, and wherein said decoding the jurisdiction identifier includes decoding the corresponding unique ballot identifier.
 39. The method of claim 38 further comprising: storing a representation of the voting selections marked on each paper ballot and the unique ballot identifier associated therewith; and/or publishing the voting selections decoded from each paper ballot and the corresponding jurisdiction identifier and unique ballot identifier decoded from that paper ballot.
 40. The method of claim 33 wherein each paper ballot has a plurality of mark spaces in which voting selections may be marked and wherein said decoding the voting selections marked on each paper ballot comprises: determining a reference value representative of a mark space on each paper ballot that is not marked as a voting selection; determining a marked value representative of each mark space on each paper ballot; and comparing the reference value and the marked value for determining whether a mark space is marked as a voting selection.
 41. The method of claim 33 wherein ones of the paper ballots are each enclosed in a ballot envelope having a machine-readable ballot identifier and voter information including a signature thereon, said method further comprising, prior to performing the steps set forth in claim 33: decoding the ballot identifier and signature marked on each ballot envelope; displaying the decoded ballot identifier and signature for determining whether the ballot identifier and signature represent a valid ballot; and if the ballot is determined to be valid, removing the paper ballot from the ballot envelope and then performing the steps of claim 33 thereon.
 42. The method of claim 33 further comprising: determining from the voting selections decoded from each paper ballot whether each paper ballot contains an undervote, an overvote, a missing voting selection, and/or a write-in voting selection; separating each paper ballot determined to contain an undervote, an overvote, a missing voting selection, and/or a write-in voting selection from other paper ballots not determined to contain an undervote, an overvote, a missing voting selection, and/or a write-in voting selection; tabulating the voting selections read from the other paper ballots not determined to contain an undervote, an overvote, a missing voting selection, and/or a write-in voting selection; and separately processing each separated paper ballot determined to contain an undervote, an overvote, a missing voting selection, and/or a write-in voting selection.
 43. A method for reading ballots comprising: transporting the ballots on a reader transport path; reading each ballot transported on said transport path including reading fiducial marks and a jurisdiction identifier thereof and voting selections marked thereon; determining from the fiducial marks the orientation of each ballot; processing the jurisdiction identifier for each ballot for selecting a template; and recording the voting selections marked on each ballot in accordance with the selected template and the determined orientation of the ballot, whereby the voting selections marked on each ballot are read and recorded in accordance with a template corresponding to the jurisdiction identifier for that ballot.
 44. The method of claim 43 wherein each paper ballot has a plurality of mark spaces in which voting selections may be marked and wherein said recording the voting selections marked on each paper ballot comprises: determining a reference value representative of a mark space on each paper ballot that is not marked as a voting selection; determining a marked value representative of each mark space on each paper ballot; and comparing the reference value and the marked value for determining whether a mark space is marked as a voting selection.
 45. The method of claim 43 wherein ones of the ballots are each enclosed in a ballot envelope having a machine-readable ballot identifier and voter information including a signature thereon, said method further comprising, prior to performing the steps set forth in claim 43: reading the ballot identifier and signature marked on each ballot envelope; displaying the read ballot identifier and signature for determining whether the ballot identifier and signature represent a valid ballot; and if the ballot is determined to be valid, removing the ballot from the ballot envelope and then performing the steps of claim 43 thereon.
 46. The method of claim 43 further comprising: determining from the voting selections read from each ballot whether each ballot contains an undervote, an overvote, a missing voting selection, and/or a write-in voting selection; separating each ballot determined to contain an undervote, an overvote, a missing voting selection, and/or a write-in voting selection from other ballots not determined to contain an undervote, an overvote, a missing voting selection, and/or a write-in voting selection; tabulating the voting selections read from the other ballots not determined to contain an undervote, an overvote, a missing voting selection, and/or a write-in voting selection; and separately processing each separated ballot determined to contain an undervote, an overvote, a missing voting selection, and/or a write-in voting selection.
 47. A method for reading a ballot having a plurality of mark spaces thereon in which voting selections may be marked, each mark space being defined by an outline thereof, the method comprising: imaging the ballot having a plurality of mark spaces thereon wherein the image is in a format including a plurality of pixels; defining for each ballot a plurality of reading regions each including the outline of one mark space; counting the number of light pixels and dark pixels for each reading region; determining from the counts of light and dark pixels for each reading region whether the mark space therein is marked as a voting selection; and counting each determined marked voting selection.
 48. The method of claim 47 wherein said determining comprises: determining the difference between a number of dark pixels representative of the outline of a mark space from a total number of pixels for a reading region, and determining whether the counted number of dark pixels for that reading region exceeds a predetermined portion of the difference between the number of dark pixels representative of the outline of a mark space from the total number of pixels for that reading region.
 49. The method of claim 47 wherein two or more of the mark spaces are associated with a contest, each contest having a given number of voting selections that may be made therein, the method comprising: counting the number of mark spaces for the contest that are determined from the counts of light and dark pixels for each reading region to be marked as a voting selection; comparing the number of voting selections marked to the given number of voting selections; and if the number of voting selections marked equals the given number, then performing said counting each determined voting selection, if the number of voting selections marked is less than the given number, then providing an indication of an under vote, and if the number of voting selections marked exceeds the given number, then providing an indication of an over vote and not performing said counting each determined voting selection.
 50. The method of claim 49 wherein an indication of an under vote and/or an over vote is provided, further comprising providing at least an image including the under voted and/or over voted voting selection for separate processing.
 51. The method of claim 47 wherein two or more of the mark spaces and a write-in voting selection space are associated with a contest, the method comprising: determining whether a write-in selection space has been marked; and if a write in voting selection space has been marked, providing at least an image including the write-in voting selection for separate processing.
 52. The method of claim 51 wherein the separate processing comprises: storing the images of write-in voting selections; and displaying the stored image of a write-in voting selection and/or accumulated stored images of a plurality of write-in voting selections.
 53. The method of claim 51 wherein the separate processing comprises: determining the characters of the write-in voting selection by optical character recognition; and displaying the determined characters of the write-in voting selection and/or an image of a write-in voting selection.
 54. The method of claim 51 wherein each contest has a given number of voting selections that may be made therein, the method comprising: counting the number of voting selections made for the contest including mark spaces and write-in voting selection spaces that are determined to be marked as a voting selection; comparing the number of voting selections marked to the given number of voting selections; and if the number of voting selections marked equals the given number, then said counting each determined voting selection, if the number of voting selections marked is less than the given number, then providing an indication of an under vote, and if the number of voting selections marked exceeds the given number, then providing an indication of an over vote and not performing said counting each determined voting selection.
 55. The method of claim 47 wherein said determining from the counts of light and dark pixels for each reading region whether the mark space therein is marked as a voting selection comprises: (a) comparing the relative numbers of light and dark pixels to a first predetermined value to determine whether the mark space is marked as a voting selection; the method further comprising: (b) comparing the relative numbers of light and dark pixels to a second predetermined value that is higher or lower than the first predetermined value to determine whether the mark space is marked as a voting selection; and (c) providing an indication of the difference, if any, in the determinations of step (a) and step (b).
 56. The method of claim 55 wherein each ballot has a corresponding unique ballot identifier, and wherein said providing an indication includes providing the unique ballot identifier.
 57. The method of claim 47 further comprising, prior to said counting each determined marked voting selection, determining from the counts of light and dark pixels for each reading region whether at least the outlines of all marking spaces are present in the image of the ballot.
 58. The method of claim 57 further comprising separating the ballot for separate processing if at least the outlines of all marking spaces are not present in the image of the ballot.
 59. The method of claim 47 wherein each ballot has a ballot identifier and/or two or more fiducial marks thereon, further comprising, prior to said counting each determined marked voting selection: defining for each ballot one or more second reading regions each including one of the ballot identifier and/or fiducial marks; counting the number of light pixels and dark pixels for each second reading region; determining from the counts of light and dark pixels for each reading region and for each second reading region whether at least the outlines of all marking spaces and all of the ballot identifier and/or fiducial marks are present in the image of the ballot.
 60. The method of claim 59 further comprising separating the ballot for separate processing if at least the outlines of all marking spaces are not present in the image of the ballot or if all of the ballot identifier and/or the fiducial marks are not present in the image of the ballot.
 61. A method for reading a ballot having a plurality of mark spaces thereon in which voting selections may be marked, the method comprising: defining first and second predetermined values related to counts of light pixels and dark pixels for a mark space being considered marked as a voting selection, wherein the second predetermined value is greater than or less than the first predetermined value; imaging the ballot having a plurality of mark spaces thereon wherein the image is in a format including a plurality of pixels; defining for each ballot a plurality of reading regions each including the outline of one mark space; counting the number of light pixels and dark pixels for each reading region; determining from the counts of light and dark pixels for each reading region and the first predetermined value whether the mark space therein is marked as a voting selection; determining from the counts of light and dark pixels for each reading region and the second predetermined value whether the mark space therein is marked as a voting selection; identifying each ballot wherein the determination of a marked voting selection based on the first predetermined value differs from the determination of a marked voting selection based on the second predetermined value.
 62. A method for reading ballots comprising: transporting the ballots on a reader transport path wherein the reader is located at a place accessible to a voter before the voter submits the ballot; reading each ballot transported on said transport path including reading fiducial marks and a jurisdiction identifier thereof for selecting a template and reading voting selections marked on the ballot; displaying the voting selections marked on each ballot in accordance with the selected template, but not recording or storing the voting selections; and thereafter, submitting the ballot for counting, whereby the voting selections marked on the ballot are read and displayed in accordance with the template for review by a voter prior to submitting the ballot for counting.
 63. A method for reading a ballot having a plurality of mark spaces thereon in which voting selections may be marked, each mark space being defined by an outline thereof, and having a machine-readable ballot identifier and/or fiducial marks thereon, the method comprising: imaging the ballot wherein the image is in a format including a plurality of pixels; defining for each ballot a plurality of first reading regions each including the outline of one mark space and one or more second reading regions each including one of the ballot identifier and/or a fiducial marks; counting at least the number of dark pixels for each of the first and second reading regions; determining from the counts of dark pixels for each of the first and second reading regions whether at least the outlines of all marking spaces and the ballot identifier and/or fiducial marks are present in the image of the ballot; if the outlines of all marking spaces and all of the ballot identifier and/or fiducial marks are present in the image of the ballot, then counting each determined marked voting selection. 